## 3 Results and Discussion
### Effect of SA Seed Priming on Antioxidants Activities  
_S. Carnosa_ leaf extracts of both varieties were investigated for their antioxidant abilities through distinct in vitro methods, namely total antioxidant activity (TAC), DPPH\({}^{\bullet}\), and \(\beta\)-carotene and FRAP assays, allowing to evaluate their scavenging ability towards distinct radicals, as well as the ability to reduce Fe\({}^{3+}\) to Fe\({}^{2+}\) and inhibiting the bleaching of the antioxidant pigment \(\beta\)-carotene. As shown in Table 6, maximal antioxidant capacities under control conditions (+50 uM Fe) were observed in KA (as indicated by inferior IC\({}_{50}\) and EC\({}_{50}\) values), a fact that is probably linked to its high TPC and TFC contents, compared to SK (Table 3). Under complete medium soaked with SA (C+SA), an enhancement in all antioxidant activities was depicted for both varieties predominantly for SK (Table 6). Indeed, results from TAC, DPPH\({}^{\bullet}\), \(\beta\)-carotene, and FRAP were improved by about 23%, 56%, 58%, and 31%, respectively, in SK cultivar versus 10%, 17%, 15%, and 26% in KA. Whereas Fe shortage reduced the antioxidant activity in KA, against an increase noted in SK. In turn, priming seeds with SA under Fe deficiency condition (D+SA) was shown to effectively enhance the common antioxidant activities, both in SK and KA plants. As presented in Table 7, the dependence on antioxidant activity, obtained from various assays, in relation to TPC/TFC had a linear correlation in SK cultivar between the values of TAC (\(r\) = 0.99 and 0.96) and the IC\({}_{50}\) values of scavenging activity, DPPH (\(r\) = -0.76 and \(r\)= -0.80), \(\beta\)-carotene linoleic acid model system (\(r\) = -0.91 and-0.96), and the EC \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c} \hline \hline
**Varieties/Variables** & **C** & **C+SA** & **D** & **D+SA** \\ \hline Kalbia & & & \\ TAC (mg GAE/g DW) & 12.89 \(\pm\) 1.12 \({}^{\text{B}}\) & 14.33 \(\pm\) 3.15 \({}^{\text{A}}\) & 10.37 \(\pm\) 0.63 \({}^{\text{C}}\) & 7.54 \(\pm\) 0.44 \({}^{\text{E}}\) \\ DPPH (IC\({}_{50}\) mg/mL) & 2.00 \(\pm\) 0.03 \({}^{\text{C}}\) & 1.66 \(\pm\) 0.14 \({}^{\text{D}}\) & 2.98 \(\pm\) 0.24 \({}^{\text{B}}\) & 3.87 \(\pm\) 0.56 \({}^{\text{A}}\) \\ FRAP (EC\({}_{50}\) mg/mL) & 1.76 \(\pm\) 0.11 \({}^{\text{C}}\) & 1.50 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{D}}\) & 2.12 \(\pm\) 0.11 \({}^{\text{B}}\) & 3.54 \(\pm\) 1.13 \({}^{\text{A}}\) \\ \(\beta\)-carotene (IC\({}_{50}\) mg/mL) & 2.87 \(\pm\) 0.18 \({}^{\text{B}}\) & 2.11 \(\pm\) 0.19 \({}^{\text{D}}\) & 2.10 \(\pm\) 0.09 \({}^{\text{D}}\) & 3.06 \(\pm\) 0.34 \({}^{\text{A}}\) \\ \hline Sidi Khli & & & & \\ TAC (mg GAE/g DW) & 9.35 \(\pm\) 0.12 \({}^{\text{D}}\) & 14.25 \(\pm\) 2.33 \({}^{\text{A}}\) & 12.87 \(\pm\) 1.76 \({}^{\text{B}}\) & 12.99 \(\pm\) 2.44 \({}^{\text{B}}\) \\ DPPH (IC\({}_{50}\) mg/mL) & 2.82 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\text{B}}\) & 1.31 \(\pm\) 0.07 \({}^{\text{E}}\) & 1.98 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{C}}\) & 1.93 \(\pm\) 0.09 \({}^{\text{C}}\) \\ FRAP (EC\({}_{50}\) mg/mL) & 2.15 \(\pm\) 0.24 \({}^{\text{B}}\) & 1.27 \(\pm\) 0.17 \({}^{\text{E}}\) & 1.66 \(\pm\) 0.45 \({}^{\text{D}}\) & 1.57 \(\pm\) 0.14 \({}^{\text{D}}\) \\ \(\beta\)-carotene (IC\({}_{50}\) mg/mL) & 3.12 \(\pm\) 0.02 \({}^{\text{A}}\) & 2.14 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{D}}\) & 2.45 \(\pm\) 0.13 \({}^{\text{C}}\) & 3.01 \(\pm\) 0.03 \({}^{\text{A}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* TAC—total antioxidant capacity, DPPH—2.2-Diphenyl-1-picryhydrazyl radical scavenging activity; FRAP—Ferric reducing antioxidant power; \(\beta\)-carotene—\(\beta\)-carotene—\(\beta\)-carotene-linoleic acid assay; C treatment (control: 50 uM Fe); D treatment (Deficient: 1 uM Fe); SA (Salicylic acid: 0.25 mM). Data are means of 3 replicates \(\pm\) SE. Means in the same line followed by similar letters are significantly different at \(p\)\(\leq\) 0.05.  
\end{table} 
Table 6: Antioxidant activities of _Sulla carnosa_ cv. Kalbia (KA) and Sidi Khlif and (SK), primed with salicylic acid (SA) and grown under different Fe concentrations for 8 days.