Wild oleaginous plants from the argan grove of Taroudant: Chemical composition, fatty acid profile, nutritional indicators, and antioxidant activity

This work investigated the chemical composition and nutritional potential of seeds from nine plants collected in the argan grove of Taroudant, Morocco (Pistacia lentiscus L., Asphodelus tenuifolius Cav., Cistus creticus L., Capparis spinosa L., Lavandula pedunculata (Mill.) Cav., Urtica pilulifera L., Acacia sp, Datura stramonium L., and Vitex agnus castus). The characterization included proximate composition, minerals, fatty acids, and phenolic compounds. Except for seeds of Pistacia lentiscus L., most of the seeds contain more than 7 % of oil and 6 % of protein, with the highest oil content (36.23 %) for Urtica pilulifera L., and the highest protein content (32.68 %) for Lavandula pedunculata Cav. Seed oils were generally dominated by linoleic acid except those of Lavandula pedunculata with linolenic acid and that of Caparis spinosa L. with oleic acid. Ca, K, Mg, and P were identified as major minerals. Pistacia lentiscus L. displayed particularly high levels of total phenolic (82.69 mg GAE/g DW), total flavonoids (69.41 mg QE/g DW), and antioxidant activities measured by ABTS (115.71 mg TE/g DW), DPPH (93.24 %), and FRAP (418.9 mmol TE/g DW). These promising results could reveal the potential of these plants as sources of vegetable oils that could follow a development path similar to that of certain known oils such as argan, soybean, rapeseed, and sunflower oils. Future work should address challenges related to sustainable cultivation, efficient extraction at industrial scale, and preliminary assessments of economic feasibility and market potential.