*3.6. Treatment of Data*

The experiment of allelopathic bioassay was repeated three times with five replicas per each treatment. The data were subjected to one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's HSD at the probability level of 0.05 using CoStat software program, version 6.311 (http: //www.cohort.com, CoHort, Monterey, CA, USA, 1 April 2017). Additionally, the antioxidant scavenging data were subjected to one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's HSD. The data of anti-inflammatory activity were compared using paired two-tailed *t*-tests using the XLSTAT 2018 program (https://www.xlstat.com/en/, Addinsoft Inc., New York, NY, USA, 15 January 2018). Chemometric analysis of the EO compositions of the studied Egyptian ecospecies in the present study and four other studied ecospecies collected from Saudi Arabia [28], Tunisia [37], Iran [27], and the United Arab Emirates [26] was performed via cluster analysis (agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) and principal components analysis (PCA). We constructed a matrix of 65 compounds, from six samples of *C. amblyocarpa*, with a concentration >2%. The matrix was subjected to AHC and PCA using the XLSTAT 2018 program (https: //www.xlstat.com/en/, Addinsoft Inc., New York, NY, USA, 15 January 2018).

#### **4. Conclusions**

For the first time, the analysis of the EO from the above-ground parts of the Egyptian ecospecies of *C. amblyocarpa* revealed the presence of 48 compounds, with a prevalence of sesquiterpenes. Caryophyllene oxide, hexahydrofarnesyl acetone, alloaromadendrene epoxide, myrtenyl acetate, isoshyobunone, shyobunol, and *trans*-caryophyllene have been identified as major compounds. The chemometric analysis of the presently studied ecospecies and other reported ecospecies revealed significant variation in the EO composition that could be ascribed to variation in the environmental and climatic conditions. EO showed substantial allelopathic inhibitory activity against the weed *D. aegyptium*, reflecting the potentiality of using this EO as an eco-friendly bioherbicide. Additionally, the EO showed significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Further studies are recommended for evaluation (i) of anti-inflammatory effects of the *C. ambliocarpa* EO on an in vitro cell model (*ex*. RAW 264.7 cells); and (ii) the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and allelochemical activities along with the possible modes of action of the pure samples of the main EO compounds either singularly or in combination.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.M.A.-E., A.I.E. and Y.A.E.-A.; formal analysis, A.M.A.- E., A.I.E., A.E.-N.G.E.G. and Y.A.E.-A.; investigation, A.M.A.-E., A.I.E., A.M.E., T.A.M. and Y.A.E.-A.; Validation, A.M.A.-E. and A.I.E.; writing—original draft preparation, A.M.A.-E. and A.I.E.; writingreview and editing, A.M.A.-E., A.M.E., Y.A.E.-A., T.A.M., A.E.-N.G.E.G. and A.I.E. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

**Sample Availability:** Samples of the compounds are not available from the authors.

#### **References**

