## 3 Results and Discussion
### Antioxidant Activities of Corulaca monacanttha Del. and Anabasis articulata (Forssk.)  
_Moq. Extracts_  
Antioxidants are molecules that scavenge free radicals, preventing and repairing the damage produced by oxidative stresses [95], which attack the body's homeostatic system by producing anomalies in the balance between the generation of reactive oxygen species and defensive antioxidants [96]. Therefore, these antioxidant molecules protect biological systems against several diseases [95]. Furthermore, antioxidant compounds are commonly utilized in the food industry to prevent and inhibit one of the three phases of the lipid oxidation reaction chain [97], thus improving the nutritional and organoleptic quality of the different food matrices and extending their shelf-life [96]. In addition, natural antioxidants, principally phenolic compounds, are receiving more and more attention as alternatives to synthetic antioxidants [28; 98], since these synthetic antioxidants, such as BHT and BHA, have shown specific toxicity and carcinogenic effects on human health [98]. The action mechanism of phenolic compounds is based on either hydrogen atom transfer (HAT), single electron transfer by proton transfer (SET-PT), sequential electron transfer by proton loss, or transition metal chelation (TMC) [97]. For this purpose, we have chosen to estimate the antioxidant activity of the extracts from _Cornulaca monacanttha_ Del. and _Anabasis articulata_ (Forssk.) Moq. by five different tests having different modes of action and each completing the others to obtain a global estimation of their potential antioxidants.  
As mentioned in Table 6, the results of antioxidant activity (IC\({}_{50}\) for DPPH and ABTS\({}^{+}\) assays and A\({}_{0.5}\) for CUPRAC, Phenanthroline, and reducing power tests) showed a significant difference between the extracts from _Cornulaca monacanttha_ Del. and _Anabasis articulata_ (Forssk.) Moq., where _Anabasis articulata_ (Forssk.) Moq. had a higher antioxidant capacity than _Cornulaca monacanttha_ Del. for all the tests. The literature generally reports a proportional relationship between compound content and antioxidant effects. Diverse research has shown that the anti-free radical activity of plant extracts is highly related to polyphenol levels [73]. These findings support the significant difference already observed in the concentration of total polyphenol content between these samples. Moreover, the obtained results demonstrated that the antioxidant efficiency of both extracts of _C. monacanttha_ Del. and _A. articulata_ (Frossk.) Moq. is lower than that reported by the synthetic antioxidants BHA and BHT.  
Our finding of the DPPH scavenging activity IC50 of _C. monacanttha_ Del. (IC\({}_{50}\) > 200 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro\text{g}}\)/mL) is lower than that recorded by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [99] for ether and ethyl acetate extracts of the aerial part of _C. monacanttha_ Del., which were 195.70 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro\text{g}}\)/mL and 77.10 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro\text{g}}\)/mL, respectively.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Radical Scavenging Activity IC\({}_{50}\)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Reducing Power Activity A\({}_{0.5}\) (\(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro\text{g}}\)/mL)**} \\ \cline{2-6}
**Sample** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**DPPH Assay**} & **ABTS\({}^{+}\) Assay** & **CUPRAC Assay** & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Phenanthroline Assay**} & **Reducing Power Assay** \\ \hline _C. monacanttha_ Del. & \textgreater{}200 & \textgreater{}200 & \textgreater{}200 & 168.09 \(\pm\) 0.74  & 150.55 \(\pm\) 0.70  & \textgreater{}200 \\ BHA & 5.50 \(\pm\) 0.10  & 5.72 \(\pm\) 0.17  & 5.17 \(\pm\) 0.12  & 4.62 \(\pm\) 0.07  & 4.75 \(\pm\) 0.10  \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 6: The antioxidant activities of ethanolic extracts of _C. monacanttha_ Del. and _A. articulata_ (Forssk.) Moq.