3.1.1. Antioxidant Activity

The antioxidant potential of SE was evaluated in terms of DPPH*·* free radicals scavenging ability. SE exhibited the free radical inhibition of 50.56% at concentration of 0.5 mg SE/mL, which corresponds to an antioxidant activity of 1.07 mmol TE/g SE. The here-obtained extract presented similar free radical inhibition as some herb extracts well-known for a strong antioxidant activity, such as *Camellia sinensis* L. and *Rosmarinus officinalis* L., which showed 49.47% and 55.32% scavenging effects, respectively, at a concentration of 0.5 mg/mL [33]. Potent antioxidant activity of sage extracts was reported in many studies in which phenolic compounds, i.e., abietane diterpenoids (carnosol and carnosic acid) and caffeic acid derivates (rosmarinic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid) were marked as the most effective constituents with the free radical scavenging ability [15,34,35]. The antioxidant activity of phenolic compounds is due to hydroxyl groups positioned along the aromatic phenolic ring, which act as hydrogen or electron donors enabling termination of free radical chain reactions, as well as from the aromatic ring which is able to stabilize and delocalize the unpaired electron [36,37]. In accordance with the presented results, SE may be used as a functional constituent of novel packaging materials to prevent oxidation reactions.
