## 3 Results and Discussion  
### Chemical Composition  
Plant phenolics and flavonoids possess an array of biological potential, which outline the necessity of their determination when investigating the pharmacological properties of plants. For instance, phenolic compounds and flavonoids are widely known as powerful antioxidants and have been found to act as important bioactive agents that are beneficial for human health, having both curative and preventive attributes regarding diseases. The high concentration and variety of these phytochemicals in plants makes them attractive sources for pharmaceutical and medicinal applications, particularly in the field of health promotion. Antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-cancer, and cardioprotective effects, immune system stimulation and anti-inflammatory effects, as well as UV radiation skin protection, are just a few of the many activities they have been found capable of in this context [24]. The current study analyzed the bioactive phytochemical contents using HPLC-MS/MS and determined the total phenolic and flavonoid contents spectrophotometrically using colorimetric assays.  
Another focus of the current study was to assess the effect of different solvents on total bioactive contents, phytochemical composition, and biological capacity of the extracts of _A. carduchorum_. A good solvent is characterized by its optimal extraction and its capacity to preserve the stability of the desired chemical compounds, demonstrating the influence of the type of extraction solvent and its polarity on the level of extracted polyphenols [25]. In this study, five solvents ranging from polar to less polar/non-polar, notably water, methanol, ethyl acetate, dichloromethane, and n-hexane, respectively, were used for preparing the different extracts.  
Seven compounds, namely shikimic acid (0.48-8.67 ug g\({}^{-1}\)), 5-caffeoylquinic acid (0.43-35.62 ug g\({}^{-1}\)), \(p\)-coumaric acid (1.02-89.98 ug g\({}^{-1}\)), ferulic acid (0.96-87.20 ug g\({}^{-1}\)), ruin (0.082-96.11 ug g\({}^{-1}\)), hyperoside (0.183-23.71 ug g\({}^{-1}\)), and quercetin (0.15-46.63 ug g\({}^{-1}\)), were found in common in all the tested extracts of _A. carduchorum_, as revealed by HPLC-MS/MS. The methanolic extract yielded the highest bioactive content, followed by water and infusion extracts (326.2, 242.5, and 126.0 ug g\({}^{-1}\), whereas the less polar extracts (ethylacetate, dichloromethane, and hexane) yielded lower bioactive content (5.44-53.1 \(\mu\)g g\({}^{-1}\)) (Table 1).  
It is possible to get the best extraction of polyphenols by using a non-polar solvent, but this is not always the case because hydrogen bonds between the polar sites of antioxidative compounds and the solvent make a polar solvent more efficient at solvation [25]. Likewise, in the present study, higher bioactive compounds were extracted from the polar extracts compared to the less polar ones.  
Other studies have also attempted to isolate the flavonoids in the flowering herb of _Arabis caucasica_, detected as being isopharmenta 3-glucose, quercetin 3-glucose, isopharmentin 3-beta-glucose-7-alpha-rhammoside, and quercetin 3-beta-glucose-7-alpha-rhammoside [26]. The chemical components of other _Arabis_ species, such as _A. glabra_, have also been studied. Five compounds were isolated from the whole plant of _A. glabra_, identified by spectroscopic analysis as 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid, salicylic acid, astragalain, quercetin\(-\)3,7\(-\)O\(-\beta-\)D\(-\) diglucopyranosidequercetin\(-\)3,7\(-\)O\(-\beta-\)D\(-\)diglucopyranoside, and rutin [27].  
An extraction with polar solvents yielded higher TPC (25.17-26.62 mg GAE/g) compared to the less polar solvents (13.73-19.66 mg GAE/g). On the other hand, the methanolic extract yielded the highest TFC (52.95 mg RE/g) (followed by the ethyl acetate extract (19.73 mg RE/g)) compared with the other extracts that possessed relatively low TFC (2.66-9.04 mg RE/g) (Table 2).