Abstract:
Dried fruits, including the almond (Prunus amygdalus), are foods rich in oils known and appreciated for their virtues and nutritional quality. Almonds are classified into two broad groups: sweet almonds and bitter almonds.
The study was conducted with the aim of characterizing and determining the nutritional quality of Algerian almonds. For this, two bitter cultivars from the region of Setif and Bouira and a third sweet almond cultivar from the region of Bejaïa and purchased commercially were subjected to analyzes of certain physicochemical parameters. The results obtained (range of means per 100 g) do not show significant differences among them, except for the potassium content for which there is a difference that varies between 520-700 mg / 100g of raw material (RM).
The results also show that these three cultivars are rich in fat, Protein and other antioxidant activity with contents of the order of 39.34 - 39.6 g / 100g of MB and 36.34 - 41.30 mg / 100g of RM respectively. The results obtained were relatively homogeneous, revealing non-significant differences between the cultivars tested. Sweet almond from Bejaïa showed better antioxidant properties, with lower IC50 values in all tests and higher antioxidant levels. The heat treatment adopted in our study caused a decrease and an increase on average of 1.5 times in certain parameters.
Key words: Bitter and sweet almonds (Prunus amygdalus), Algerian almonds, physicochemical characterization, antioxidant activity, technological treatment (40 60 ° C)
