## 4 Discussion  
Glycophytes, such as _Ocimum_, suffer from salt stress and grow slower, branch less, and show wilting symptoms. This is caused by two successive processes. Firstly, salt stress reduces water uptake due to osmotic stress. Secondly, excess salts in the transpiration stream damages plant cells by inhibiting photosynthesis, affecting ion homeostasis, and peroxid oxidizing membrane lipids [33]. Not surprisingly, we observed in both in vitro systems that plant growth was strongly affected by salt stress. In the semi-solid medium, the number of shoots, root length, shoot length, and biomass decreased at salt levels ranging from 0 g/L (control) to 9 g/L NaCl. Similar studies in basil, both in pots and with nutrient solutions, confirmed the negative effects of salt. When basil was grown in soil containing 3 g/L NaCl, leaf area and the fresh and dry weight of leaves and stems decreased to 77% compared to the control [34]. Even 1.5 g/L NaCl reduced the total fresh weight and dry weight of basil roots [35]. Plant height, stem diameter, leaf number, and dry mass of basil \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**SETIS** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**TPC (mg GAE/g)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**TFC (mg QE/g)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**DPPH (IC\({}_{\text{SQ}}\)) (ug/mL)**} \\
**Salt Treatment** & **without VOCs** & **with VOCs** & **without VOCs** & **with VOCs** & **without VOCs** & **with VOCs** \\ \hline Control & 49.0 \(\pm\) 7.8 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 128.2 \(\pm\) 29 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 50.8 \(\pm\) 7.8 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 56.7 \(\pm\)14.1 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 27.3 \(\pm\)6.8 \({}^{\text{de}}\) & 44.5 \(\pm\) 11.0 \({}^{\text{bc}}\) \\
1 g/L NaCl & 60.3 \(\pm\) 12.6 \({}^{\text{cd}}\) & 108.4 \(\pm\) 22.6 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 33.4 \(\pm\) 5.3 \({}^{\text{cd}}\) & 56.7 \(\pm\) 14.1 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 19.2 \(\pm\) 6.2 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 29.0 \(\pm\) 5.2 \({}^{\text{d}}\) \\
3 g/L NaCl & 55.5 \(\pm\) 11.2 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 71.1 \(\pm\) 13.4 \({}^{\text{cd}}\) & 30.1 \(\pm\) 6.6 \({}^{\text{de}}\) & 44.4 \(\pm\) 7.8 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 43.6 \(\pm\) 10.2 \({}^{\text{bc}}\) & 75.2 \(\pm\) 10.2 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\
6 g/L NaCl & 45.5 \(\pm\) 13.2 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 53.1.3 \(\pm\) 10 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 28.0 \(\pm\)5.5 \({}^{\text{de}}\) & 36.5 \(\pm\) 6.1 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 21.6 \(\pm\)10.2 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 53.2 \(\pm\) 7 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\
9 g/L NaCl & 55.8 \(\pm\)15.5 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 85.4 \(\pm\)20.1 \({}^{\text{bc}}\) & 24.3 \(\pm\) 5.2 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 26.1 \(\pm\) 4.6 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 12.8 \(\pm\) 1.9 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 32.4 \(\pm\) 4.5 \({}^{\text{d}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
For each parameter, values are means \(\pm\) SE. Different lowercase letters indicate significant difference (\(p<0.05\)), between the 10 combinations of salt x VOCs, based on one-way ANOVA.  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Effect of _Serendipita indica_ volatiles on total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and antioxidant activity (DPPH) of _Ocimum basinicum_ in SETIS under stress condition. plants were significantly reduced when salt concentration was increased from 0 to 4.80 g/L NaCl [36]. In SETIS, the addition of 1 g/L NaCl seemed to be beneficial for shoot and root length, but at 3 g/L NaCl, there were already negative effects. The stimulatory effect of temporary immersion in 1 g/L NaCl suggests that _O. basilicum_ prefers mild salinity. Some authors demonstrated this positive effect in other species. For example, the addition of 1.5 or 3 g/L NaCl to the culture medium had a positive impact on the growth of _Solanum lycopersicum seedlings_[37]. Another negative effect of salinity demonstrated in this experiment was the reduced chlorophyll content in both systems. The reduction of chlorophyll under salt stress has been demonstrated in basil [36], and in many other species, such as sugarcane [38], wheat and barley [39], tomato [40], _Prosopis alba_[41] and maize [42].