plants Article Phytochemicals, Antioxidant Activity and Ethnobotanical Uses of Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Del. Fruits from the Arid Zone of Mauritania, Northwest Africa Selouka Mint Abdelaziz 1,2, Fouteye Mint Mohamed Lemine 1, Hasni Ould Tfeil 3, Abdelkarim Filali-Maltouf 2 and Ali Ould Mohamed Salem Boukhary 1,* 1 Université de Nouakchott Al Aasriya, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Unité de recherche génomes et milieux, nouveau campus universitaire, Nouakchott, P.O. Box 880, Mauritanie;
[email protected] (S.M.A.);
[email protected] (F.M.M.L.) 2 Laboratory of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed Vth University, Rabat 10100, Morocco; fi
[email protected] 3 Laboratoire de chimie, Office national d’inspection sanitaire des produits alimentaires (ONISPA), Nouakchott P.O. Box 137, Mauritanie;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +222-2677-9299 Received: 2 March 2020; Accepted: 8 March 2020; Published: 24 March 2020 Abstract: Phytochemicals and antioxidant activity of fruits of 30 B. aegyptiaca trees naturally growing in the hyper-arid and arid zones in Mauritania were evaluated by following standard procedures. Ethnobotanical uses of fruit pulps and kernel were assessed using a structured questionnaire. Balanites aegyptiaca fruit pulp is a good source of sugars (33 g/100 g dry matter (DM)), polyphenols (264 mg GAE/100 g DM) and flavonoids (34.2 mg/100 g DM) with an average antioxidant activity of 519 µmol TEAC/100 g DM. The fruit kernel is rich in lipids (46.2 g/100 g DM) and proteins (29.5 g/ 100 g DM). Fruits from the hyper-arid zone exhibited high level of polyphenols, antioxidant activity and soluble tannins.