Study of the effects of extraction methods on Argan oil quality through its metal content

Argan oil is an edible oil highly valued as a traditional healthy food ingredient, and increasingly used in the cosmetic industry. This work was aimed at studying the effects of extraction methods on metals content of oil, in order to determine the optimal extraction method. For this purpose, we analysed of argan oil, extracted from argan kernels collected in four regions of Morocco, following three different process (traditional, mechanical, by solvent). Oil quality was assessed by determining levels of dietary and heavy metals. Abundance and mineralogical residence of 11 elements have been also determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Results showed that no significant variations exist among the studied samples in terms of the levels of dietary elements and heavy metals and hence of oil quality. Our study shows that there is not a preferred method for argan oil extraction in view to preparing high quality Argan oil.