*3.10. DPPH Assay*

The DPPH assay was used as a means to determine the free radical-scavenging activity of the honey samples. In this study the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (Table 2) was identified for raspberry honey (79.05%) and mint honey (74.03%), and the lowest for thyme (63.77%) and rape honey (55.49%). Lachman et al. [67] also determined a lower antioxidant activity from the DPPH assay for rape honey and higher for raspberry honey in a study on honey samples from the Czech Republic. Blasa et al. [68] and Salonen et al. [69] argued that light-colored honey possessed lower antioxidant activity by comparison to darker colored honey, an observation that seems to be accurate for our study, although the differences between the free radical scavenging activities of our honey samples were not as pronounced as in the case of the above-mentioned studies.

DPPH radical scavenging activity is a parameter that varied significantly (*p* < 0.001) depending on the botanical origin of the honey samples analyzed. By comparison to the antioxidant activities reported for honey samples from other geographical regions, which include studies by Ruiz-Navajas et al. [70] who reported values of 33.4–85.5% for honey from Tabasco (Mexico) and Baltrusaityte et al. [71] who reported for honey from Lithuania values between 31.1% and 86.9%, Romanian honey had overall higher antioxidant activities.
