Département de Biotechnologie Végétale, Laboratoire des Productions, Valorisations Végétales et Microbiennes (LP2VM), Faculté des sciences de la nature et de la vie, Université des Sciences et de la Technologie d’Oran Mohamed Boudiaf, B.P. 1505, El-Mn’aour, Oran 31000, Algeria
Argania spinosa, Sapotaceae sole representative in Algeria and Morocco, hence its endemic in these regions. Although it is a recognised oil, forage and timber tree highly adapted to aridity. The exploitation of the argan fruits, produces considerable amounts of under or related products. These products, such as the endocarps of a fruit, recuperated after use of kernels to extract oil.Phytochemical screening of A. spinosa endocarps indicated the presence of, tannins, flavonoid aglycons, proanthocyanidins, saponins and coumarins in immature endocraps. Whereas, Alkaloids and reducteurs compounds were detected only in mature endocarps. The total phenolics, total flavonoids and proanthocyanidins contents were in the ranges of 985,75 +/-0.45, 100,1+/- 0.55 and 280,47+/- 0.45 mg/g respectively in immature endocarps. In mature endocarps these compounds represent, 106,58+/- 0,45, 4.512 +/- 0,55 and 104.15 +/- 0.55 mg/g respectively. The 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) in the radical-scavenging assay against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl hydrate radical (DPPH) of immature endocarps and mature endocarps (24H, 1week) were 322; 550 and 600 μg/mL respectively.Thus, the total polyphenols (TP), total flavonoids (TF) and condensed tannins (CT) contents exhibited the highest levels in the unripe fruits. The antiradical activity trend was positively correlated to the behavior of the bioactive compounds content.The results demonstrated that the methanol extract of the fruit endocarps of A.spinosa is a potential source of natural antioxidants. Thus, further work should be screened bioactivity, isolated, characterized and elucidated the bioactive compounds of the extract for medicinal value.Antioxidant activity of extracts was expressed as percentage of DPPH radical’s inhibition and IC50 values (μg/ml).