**3. Results**

#### *3.1. Growth, Yield, and Quality Characteristic of C. maritimum at Harvesting*

The salinity treatment did not affect the shoot FW and root parameters (Table 1). However, NaCl treatment reduced the leaf area and specific leaf area of *C. maritimum* plants, which indicates that the leaves were thicker when plants were grown with 150 mM NaCl.

**Table 1.** Influence of salinity treatment (control and 150 mM NaCl) on fresh weight, leaf area, specific leaf area (SLA), total root length, area root, diameter root and volume root of *C. maritimum* at harvest.


Values are the mean ± SE (*n* = 6). Values in the same column with different letters for each anion differ significantly according to LSD test (*p* < 0.05).

Some differences were observed regarding the contents of anions and cations in the leaf of *C. maritimum* at harvesting (Tables 2 and 3). With regard to anions, the content of nitrate was reduced by 17% in salinity conditions, while the content of chloride was increased by 3.7-fold. Furthermore, the addition of NaCl significantly reduced the content of bromide and sulphate, while the content of phosphate and oxalate was not affected by the salinity. Regarding cations, the content of sodium was found to increase by ca. 500%, whilst potassium, calcium and magnesium ions accumulated to a minor extent when sea fennel was grown in salinity conditions. These results agree with the hypothesis that sea fennel requires salt to grow, and it can tolerate high concentrations of salt. Finally, Cl− content was found to be systematically higher than Na+, an imbalance that clearly indicates the existence in sea fennel plants of a regulatory mechanism to retain Na+ far away from leaves since it could be a toxic element for the photosynthetic system.

**Table 2.** The content of anions (NO3<sup>−</sup>, Cl<sup>−</sup>, Br<sup>−</sup>, PO4<sup>3</sup><sup>−</sup>, SO4<sup>2</sup><sup>−</sup>, C2O4<sup>2</sup>−) (mg kg−<sup>1</sup> FW) in the leaf of *C. maritimum* under the different treatments (control and 150 mM NaCl) at harvesting.


Values are the mean ± SE (*n* = 6). Values in the same column with different letters for each anion differ significantly according to LSD test (*p* < 0.05).

**Table 3.** The content of cations (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+) (mg kg−<sup>1</sup> FW) in the leaf of *C. maritimum* under the different treatments (control and 150 mM NaCl) at harvesting.


Values are the mean ± SE (*n* = 6). Values in the same column with different letters for each cation differ significantly according to LSD test (*p* < 0.05).

Salinity significantly reduced the phenolics content in sea fennel leaves at harvesting by 6% but increased the flavonoids content by 10% (Table 4) However, no significant differences were found between treatments with respect to antioxidant capacity.


**Table 4.** Total phenolics content, total flavonoids, and total antioxidant capacity in leaves of *C. maritimum* under the different treatments (control and 150 mM NaCl).
