## 3 Results and Discussion
### Antioxidant Activities and Total Phenolic Content in Different Tissues of Aridchoke Genotypes

Table 4: Total polyphenols content (TPC) expressed as mg GAE/g DW of leaf, stem, primary and secondary flower head (PFH and SFH) of six different genotypes of Orte 1 (F4 P10, F3 P8, and F17 P3) and Orte 2 (F7 P2, F7 P5, and F15 P3) populations, along with the four reference genotypes (Campagnano, C3-13, Grato 1 and Castellammare). The ANOVA analysis was conducted within each group (Orte 1, Orte 2, and the four reference genotypes) for all tissues analyzed. Different letters indicate statistically significant differences at \(p\leq\) 0.05. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**DPPH (umol TE/g DW)**} \\ \hline
**Genotype** & **Leaf** & **Stem** & **PFH** & **SFH** \\ \hline Orte 1 F4 P10 & 27.58 \(\pm\) 0.07 \({}^{\rm j}\) & 462.18 \(\pm\) 0.38 \({}^{\rm i}\) & 1075.91 \(\pm\) 1.76 \({}^{\rm c}\) & 1232.56 \(\pm\) 4.17 \({}^{\rm a}\) \\ Orte 1 F3 P8 & 978.85 \(\pm\) 7.67 \({}^{\rm e}\) & 1009.10 \(\pm\) 4.45 \({}^{\rm d}\) & 1164.42 \(\pm\) 7.89 \({}^{\rm b}\) & 1017.68 \(\pm\) 6.59 \({}^{\rm d}\) \\ [PERSON] 1 F17 P3 & 595.15 \(\pm\) 9.87 \({}^{\rm h}\) & 800.07 \(\pm\) 7.55 \({}^{\rm g}\) & 825.36 \(\pm\) 6.28 \({}^{\rm f}\) & 991.80 \(\pm\) 2.57 \({}^{\rm e}\) \\ \[PERSON] 2 F7 P2 & 134.04 \(\pm\) 6.44 \({}^{\rm k}\) & 1297.61 \(\pm\) 8.10 \({}^{\rm c}\) & 276.55 \(\pm\) 5.26 \({}^{\rm j}\) & 1591.16 \(\pm\) 4.09 \({}^{\rm b}\) \\ Orte 2 F7 P5 & 674.29 \(\pm\) 1.61 \({}^{\rm h}\) & 1091.79 \(\pm\) 2.68 \({}^{\rm d}\) & 868.01 \(\pm\) 4.36 \({}^{\rm f}\) & 1010.87 \(\pm\) 2.35 \({}^{\rm e}\) \\ Orte 2 F15 P3 & 1102.78 \(\pm\) 7.69 \({}^{\rm d}\) & 1685.71 \(\pm\) 0.03 \({}^{\rm a}\) & 469.36 \(\pm\) 9.85 \({}^{\rm e}\) & 757.97 \(\pm\) 0.50 \({}^{\rm g}\) \\ \hline Campaignano & 379.90 \(\pm\) 0.13 \({}^{\rm i}\) & 576.63 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\rm g}\) & 562.98 \(\pm\) 7.55 \({}^{\rm g}\) & 309.98 \(\pm\) 3.75 \({}^{\rm k}\) \\ C3-13 & 376.94 \(\pm\) 8.55 \({}^{\rm i}\) & 673.78 \(\pm\) 0.07 \({}^{\rm e}\) & 584.95 \(\pm\) 4.79 \({}^{\rm f}\) & 449.16 \(\pm\) 2.13 \({}^{\rm i}\) \\ Grato 1 & 456.44 \(\pm\) 0.09 \({}^{\rm i}\) & 1508.29 \(\pm\) 0.02 \({}^{\rm b}\) & 667.89 \(\pm\) 2.00 \({}^{\rm e}\) & 1706.41 \(\pm\) 1.91 \({}^{\rm a}\) \\ Castellammare & 248.41 \(\pm\) 6.46 \({}^{\rm i}\) & 476.24 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\rm h}\) & 1373.56 \(\pm\)DW) were observed in the PFHs of Campagnano, Grato 1, and C3, as well as in the SFH and stem tissues of C3 (Table 27). For the Orte 1 population, the highest ABTS values were observed in the stem (380.60 umol TE/g DW) and SFH (372.16 umol TE/g DW) tissues of Orte 1 F4 P10. These values, however, were not significantly different from those recorded in the SFH of Orte 1 F17 P3 (377.76 umol TE/g DW) and Orte 1 F3 P8 (357.76 umol TE/g DW). Nonetheless, the latter genotypes exhibited significantly lower antioxidant activity in the stem compared to Orte 1 F4 P10 (Table 27). In the Orte 2 population, the highest level of antioxidant activity, as measured by the ABTS assay, was recorded in the stem of the Orte 2 F7 P2 genotype (451.64 umol TE/g DW), which was significantly greater than the values observed in all other analyzed sample tissues (Table 27). Notably, in addition to the stem, Orte 2 F7 P2 exhibited the highest values across all the three remaining tissue types when compared to the other two genotypes in the Orte 2 population (Table 27). Among the reference genotypes, Grato 1 exhibited some of the highest values for antioxidant activity, as measured by the ABTS assay, in both the stem (388.06 umol TE/g DW) and SFH (381.61 umol TE/g DW) tissues. These values were not significantly different from those detected in the PFH of Campagnano (391.27 umol TE/g DW) or the SFH of Castellammare (360.03 umol TE/g DW) (Table 27). Notably, appreciable antioxidant activity was also observed in the PFH of Grato 1 (335.08 umol TE/g DW) and in the stem of Campagnano (324.98 umol TE/g DW) (Table 27).