## 4 Conclusions  
This study contributed by evaluating the effect of two drying processes in the preservation of the nutritional composition and bioactive compounds present in \(S\). _ramossissima_. The results generated herein demostrated that both drying processes, namely oven-drying and freeze-drying, have an impact on the nutritional composition of \(S\). _ramossissima_, as well  
Figure 4: Evaluation mean scores for sensory attributes of the ketchups with 2.2% oven-dried \(S\). _ramossissima_ (2.2 DS%) and 3.0% oven-dried \(S\). _ramossissima_ (3.0 DS%) (\(n=102\) consumers). Each sensory attribute was evaluated using a nine-point hedonic scale where 1 = “disliked extremely” and 9 = “liked extremely”. The letters (a and b) correspond to the statistical analysis performed to calculate the existence of a significant difference (\(p<0.05\)) between each sample according to the unpaired \(l\)-test. as in the phytochemical content and antioxidant capacity, which are significantly reduced during the oven-drying of the plant compared to the freeze-drying process. Neverthless, antiproliferative and antihypertensive activities of the dried plants are not dependent on the type of drying process, meaning that other compounds present in theses plants may be more important for these activities. During the oven-dried process, the volatile composition was also affected, leading to a decrease of compounds such as alcohols. Some of these compounds have been associated with marine odors and may affect the consumer acceptability of food products formulated with _S. ramossissima_ as a natural ingredient. These results indicate that the dried _S. ramossissima_ could be an adequate option for use in the food and gourmet cuisine industry to replace table salt, even in the dried form, as they can have high amounts of NaCl and also phytochemicals that are important for their contribution in the prevention of diseases. The extracts from the analyzed plants also demonstrate potencial bioactivity and more research should be done concerning not only the other phytochemicals that may be present in these plants, but also the study of the amounts of plants that should be used in order be a salt substitute ingredient in a healthy diet. The following are available online at [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/antiox10081312/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/antiox10081312/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/antiox10081312/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/antiox10081312/s1)). Conceptualization, S.C.O.-A., A.T.S. and M.R.B. ; methodology, S.C.O.-A., F.A., I.P., A.B.S., J.C. ([PERSON]), B.D. and I.C. ; formal analysis, S.C.O.-A., F.A., I.P. and A.B.S. ; investigation, S.C.O.-A., F.A., A.B.S., B.D., J.C. ([PERSON]) and I.C. ; data curation, S.C.O.-A. and F.A. ; writing--original draft preparation, S.C.O.-A. and F.A. ; writing--review and editing, S.C.O.-A., F.A., I.P., B.D., I.C., A.T.S. and M.R.B. ; supervision, S.C.O.-A., A.T.S. and M.R.B. ; project administration, S.C.O.-A., A.T.S. and M.R.B. ; funding acquisition, A.T.S. and M.R.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This study was funded by (i) iNOVA4 Health, UIDB/04462/2020 and UIDP/04462/2020, a program financially supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia/ Ministerio da Ciencia, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior through national funds; (ii) the INTERFACE Programme through the Innovation, Technology, and Circular Economy Fund (FITEC); and (iii) the Portuguese Mass Spectrometry Network (Rede Nacional de Espectrometria de Massa -- RNEM; LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-402-022125). Not applicable. The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Materials. The authors acknowledge Mendes Goncalves SA. for the development of the ketchup samples for the sensorial analysis. Authors are also grateful to [PERSON] and [PERSON] from iBET for their technical assistance with the freeze-drying process and sensorial analysis. A.T.S.