Argan leaves along with fruit by-products serve, since ancient times, as animal feed as well as incorporated into other food products. Most of research works conducted on argan tree were devoted to oily fraction and little is known about by-product. In this study, thirteen elements including macro, micro-elements as well as heavy metals were quantified in argan leaves, cake and pulp using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and atomic absorption spectrometry. Sampling was carried out over 4 localities. Analyses of variance revealed that locality, by-product type and their interaction affect significantly data variability, while by-product was the main variability source. These outcomes were confirmed by principal component analysis, which allowed a clear discrimination among localities and by-products. Our samples were found to be rich in macro and micro-elements but lower levels of heavy metals demonstrating higher nutritional value on one hand and lack of toxicity concerns of argan by-products.

自古以来，摩洛哥坚果叶与水果副产品一起用作动物饲料，并加入其他食品中。对摩洛哥坚果树进行的大部分研究工作都致力于油性馏分，而对副产品知之甚少。在这项研究中，使用电感耦合等离子体发射光谱法和原子吸收光谱法对摩洛哥坚果叶、饼和果肉中的 13 种元素（包括宏量、微量元素和重金属）进行了定量。抽样在4个地点进行。方差分析表明，位置、副产品类型及其相互作用显着影响数据变异性，而副产品是主要的变异源。这些结果通过主成分分析得到证实，这可以明确地区分和副产品。