Morphological and chemical characterization of carob pulps collected from four moroccan regions

The present research is included in a strategy of conservation and management of genetic resources for Carob tree (Ceratonia Siliqua L.) in Morocco. It has as one of its objectives, the evaluation of the morphological and chemical characteristics of four Moroccan ecotypes of carob pulps. The study related to morphological characterization reveals that there was a significant difference between the four populations from Meknes, Fez, Khemisset and Marrakech collected in 2018 and 2019. The lipid profile of carob pulp extracts analyzed by GC-MS is constituted of fatty acids, hydrocarbons, non-oxygenated compounds, sterols and tocopherols. The concentration of these compounds varies according to the population and year of collection. According to the results, the fatty acid contents are relatively high in 2019 with the dominance of palmitic acid. Additionally, our study approved the dominance of 1-Hexacosene, Tetracosane, Heptadecane. 1-iodo Hexadecane, 1-chloro Octadecane and 1, 54-dibromo Tetrapentacontane. Furthermore, it is noted that Stigmasterol, gamma-Sitosterol, beta-Sitosterol, alpha-Tocospiro A, alpha-Tocospiro B and Vitamin E are present in the samples. Moreover, the hierarchical analysis based on the results of the morphological and chromatographic characterization of the four populations’ pulps identify three groups. The first group included populations P3 and P4 respectively from Marrakech and Khemisset. The second group presented by the population P1 from Meknes. The population P2 from Fez constituted the third group.