The neglected and underutilized plants (NUPs) have never been mainstreamed by researchers, politicians and stakeholders for sustainable exploitation in the ornamental-horticultural sector. This study focused on 399 local endemic plants of three Mediterranean regions (Crete, Mediterranean coast-Rif of Morocco, Tunisia), with the aim to develop a new scheme for their multifaceted ornamental-horticultural evaluation facilitating their sustainable exploitation. The methodological scheme was developed within three multidisciplinary co-creative workshops by experts and was adjusted by end-users. The developed scheme uses point and weighted scoring of several attributes relevant to biological and ornamental-horticultural characteristics and concerns three ranking levels: (i) ornamental-horticultural potential (general or subsector-specific; 20 attributes), (ii) sustainable exploitation feasibility (12 attributes) and (iii) readiness timescale (after gap and SWOT analyses) in creating value chains in short-, medium- or long-term. The analysis of the data illustrated two example-cases of already achieved sustainable exploitation with established value chains; outlined the prospects for sustainable exploitation of 18 and 23 local endemic NUPs in short-term and medium-term, respectively; and identified 86 taxa with reachable possibilities in the long-term. The proposed multifaceted evaluation scheme can be applied for the valorisation of NUPs in other areas and may help to define priorities and to identify opportunities and gaps for their sustainable exploitation.

This study aims to investigate the biological activities of endemic plant Anabasis aretioïdes harvested in eastern Morocco. Various extracts were prepared from aerial part by aqueous and organic extraction using a Soxhlet and cold maceration. Preliminary phytochemical analysis was carried out on the powder and on the different extracts by standard phytochemical tests, and was confirmed by a quantitative analysis based on the determination of total polyphenols and cathechic tannins. Antioxidant activity was evaluated in vitro by five methods: H2O2, DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, and RP, and the antibacterial activity was carried out by disc diffusion method and the determination of MIC and MBC. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of cathechic tannins, saponins, and sterols and quantitative analysis showed that Ethyl acetate extract presented the high level of phenolic and cathechic tannins contents (46.79 ± 0.75 µg GAE/mg E and 46.46 ± 0.67 µg CE/mg E). A highest hydrogen peroxide activity was observed in aqueous macerated extract (7.84 ± 0.44%) and the macerated methanol extract has the highest rates for the other four antioxidant activity tests: It was able to reduce DPPH with an IC50 of 52.91 ± 0.24 µg/ml, the highest ABTS•+ radical scavenging capacity (48.99 ± 1.316 µg TE/mg E), it showed also the highest antioxidant activity by the FRAP and reducing power test (99.73 ± 3.570 µg TE/mg E and 72.176 ± 0.540 µg AAE/mg E). Antibacterial screening showed that the maximum zone of inhibition was noted for ethyl acetate extract against Staphylococcus aureus (13.5 mm). The lowest MIC value was obtained with methanolic and macerated methanolic extracts against Protéus mirabilis strain (MIC = 3.125 mg/ml). Principal component analysis showed that the four methods ABTS, DPPH, FRAP, and RP are highly correlated and a correlation between the antioxidant activity and the total phenolic contents of the extracts indicated that phenolic compounds were the dominant contributors to the antioxidant activity of the plant.

Background: The present study was conducted on the Moroccan Juglansregia L. bark, in comparison with other Juglansregia collected in other countries, to study the effects of the use of different extraction solvents (water, ethanol, acetone, and diethyl ether), aqueous and organic extraction method, hot and cold extraction by maceration modalities on the presence and content of the different phytochemicals, and on the antioxidant activity. Methods: Various solvents of increasing polarity were used for the preparation of aqueous and organic extracts. Afterwards, a phytochemical screening, an estimation of phenolic compounds, flavonoids and tannins contents was conducted.The in vitro antioxidant activity was carried out by five tests: H2O2, ABTS, FRAP, DPPH and reducing power. Subsequently, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to establish the correlation between phenol content and antioxidant activity. Results: Phytochemical analysis showed that the 9 extracts prepared are characterized by the presence of flavonoids, catechic tannins, saponins, anthraquinones and quinones, and that the macerated acetone extract contains the highest content of phenolic compounds (327.972±0.06 µgEAG/mgE), flavonoids (1267.981±2.911 µgEQ/mgE), and tannins (38.056±1.886 µgEC/gE). The best antioxidant activity was obtained with the macerated acetone which was found to be the most active via the five different tests, with a percentage of scavenging of H2O2 equal at 24.13±1.81, a higher value of ABTS equal to 602.29±0.34 μgET/mgE. PCA allowed us to deduce that phenolic compounds, flavonoids and tannins are strongly correlated with antioxidant activity. Conclusion: Moroccan Juglansregia may be one of the potential sources of antioxydant compounds.

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