## 3 Results and Discussion
### In-Vitro Scavenging Capacity of Reactive Species  
Halophytes are characterized by the presence of a complex antioxidant defense mechanism, involving enzymatic and non-enzymatic pathways, that maintain the plant homeostasis between reactive species, antioxidants and cell signaling [42]. Considering that, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging by _S. ramsissima_ extracts were evaluated (Table 3). The first step of oxygen reduction is the formation of superoxide anion radical (O2*-), that is converted to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) by superoxide dismutase (SOD) [42]. O2*- and H2O2 are the precursors of others ROS with toxic effects. According to Table 3, CE shown the best capacity to scavenge O2*-, presenting an IC50 = 979.36 mg/mL. However, it was impossible to determine the IC50 for the highest concentration of MAE extract tested (1000 mg/mL), exhibiting an inhibition of 39.76%. Catechin and gallic acid showed better values comparatively with _S. ramsissima_ extracts. Significant differences (\(p<0.05\)) were observed between the positive controls and the CE extract. Despite the observed differences, our results may be due to the extracts rich composition in flavonoids, since compounds such as quercetin, myricetin and rutin are considered effective inhibitors \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**ROS**} \\ \cline{2-4}  & **O2*–** & **HOCI** & **ROO*** \\ \cline{2-4}  & **IC50 (\(\mu\)g/mL)** & **\(\mu\)mol TE/mg dw** \\ \hline _S. ramsissima_ extracts & & & \\ CE & 979.36 \(\pm\) 4.66 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 90.28 \(\pm\) 8.54 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 0.056 \(\pm\) 0.011 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ MAE & NA & 104.64 \(\pm\) 2.06 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 0.061 \(\pm\) 0.009 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\
**Positive controls** & & & \\ Catechin & 123.78 \(\pm\) 0.28 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 0.96 \(\pm\) 0.04 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 3.217 \(\pm\) 0.116 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ Gallic acid & 101.37 \(\pm\) 1.18 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 11.76 \(\pm\) 0.29 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 38.215 \(\pm\) 2.180 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
NA–no activity.  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Superoxide anion radical (O2*–), hypochlorous acid (HOCI), and peroxyl radical (ROO*) scavenging capacities of _S. ramsissima_ extracts obtained by CE and MAE. Different letters (a, b, c) in the same column mean significant differences (\(p<0.05\)) between different extracts. of O2*-[43]. Further, the obtained activities are also lower than the ones reported by Daffodil for the petroleum ether, benzene, ethyl acetate, methanol and ethanol extracts of _S. brachiata_ against O2*-[44]. The IC50 values obtained ranged between 19.14 \(\upmu\)g/mL and 28.64 \(\upmu\)g/mL, respectively for the ethyl acetate and methanol extracts [44]. These differences may be due to the extraction technique and solvents employed; nevertheless, most of the solvents employed by these authors were toxic, while in the present study water, a green and safe solvent, was used. HOC1 is a ROS generated in the presence of O2*-, being particularly reactive during inflammatory processes [34]. Both extracts showed a good scavenging capacity of HOC1, with IC50 values of 90.28 \(\upmu\)g/mL and 104.64 \(\upmu\)g/mL for CE and MAE, respectively. Nevertheless, the values obtained for _S. ramossissima_ extracts were higher than the positive controls (\(p<0.05\)). The peroxyl radical (ROO*) is an important chain-carrying species in the reaction of organic compounds with molecular oxygen, and its scavenging prevents lipid peroxidation [45,46]. As shown in Table 3, the results obtained for the extracts were very similar (0.056 and 0.061 \(\upmu\)mol TE/mg dw for CE and MAE, respectively) and no significant differences (\(p>0.05\)) were found. Nevertheless, the standards showed a higher scavenging activity against ROO*, being gallic acid the best compound (38.215 \(\upmu\)mol TE/mg dw). Significant differences (\(p<0.05\)) were observed between standards as well as between each standard and the different extracts. [PERSON] et al.