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The use of plants and their products as sources of antioxidants to enhance health and food preservation is currently of great interest. Many plant species, especially those belonging to the Lamiaceae family have exhibited strong antioxidant activity. Salvia macrosiphon is an endemic medicinal plant in Iran, belonging to Lamiaceae family and has many pharmaceutical properties. This study was carried to evaluate the effects of different concentrations of sodium chloride [0.4 (control), 2.3, 4.5 and 6.8 dSm -1 ] on growth, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of S. macrosiphon plants. Results showed that salinity stress affects plant growth by changing plants' both fresh and dry weights. In addition, although total phenolic content in S. macrosiphon plants decreased with salinity, there was an increase in leaf antioxidant content. The absence of correlation between phenolic contents present in S. macrosiphon plants and antioxidant activity could be explained by the fact that other antioxidant molecules are also synthesized under stress conditions.

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Techniques to fabricate nanostructured materials are in constant development. These techniques initiated with physical and chemical approaches and now are developed to biosynthesis and green synthesis techniques. Nowadays, bioactive compounds from microbial cells and plant extracts are hugely tested and employed for the green synthesis of nanoparticles. Similar to microbial cells that can produce intracellular nanostructures, some plants can synthesize and maintain nanostructures in their tissue. The evidence of these finding is the phytomining technology. Now it is known that various parameters such as soil pH, geographical area, and ionic precursor can influence the process of in situ fabrication of nanoparticles. Plant metabolites such as terpenoids, polyphenols, reducing sugars, alkaloids, phenolic acids, and proteins play a major role in the reduction of metal ions as well as stabilization of the produced nanoparticles. These in situ synthesized nanoparticles can be extracted and purified via ashing techniques.