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Forestry residues (FR) and medicinal-aromatic plant waste (MAPW) are considered potential resources for energy recovery. In this context, we explore the bioethanol production potential of three microbial strains Aspergillus niger, Zymomonas mobilis, and Trichoderma longibrachiatum using this lignocellulosic hydrolysate as a substrate. The blend of FR and MAPW was pretreated by different methods like acid sulfuric (AS), steam explosion (SE), and enzymatic (E). The ethanol yield was measured by gas chromatography (GC). Zymomonas mobilis demonstrated the highest ethanol yield of 5.95% on untreated substrate. Conversely, Aspergillus niger exhibited peak performance with an ethanol yield of 10.78% following AS, SE and E combined pretreatment. Trichoderma longibrachiatum, yielded ethanol ranging from 1.27% to 2.47%. Furthermore, the use of immobilized d’ Aspergillus niger strains revealed a small decrease in ethanol yield from 11.34% in the first cycle to only 5.02% in the sixth cycle. In conclusion, Aspergillus niger emerges as a promising candidate due to its dual functionality in pretreatment and ethanol fermentation, offering pathways for advancing sustainable biofuel technologies.

Geographical origin and environmental factors have a significant impact on the constituents and the biological properties of medicinal and aromatic plants. Herein, we investigated the Inula viscosa plant grown in El Menzel - Morocco, with a focus on the impact of geographical pronvince and solvent type on the mass yield and the biological activities of plant extracts. Chemical composition was characterized by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Antimicrobial activity was determined using the disk diffusion method and the microdilution test against eight clinical fungal, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial isolates. Chemical composition results showed that the plant has good nutritional quality in terms of protein, carbohydrates, lipids and dietary fibre. In fact, alkaloids and saponisides are the most predominant chemical compounds in Inula Vuscosa. Meanwhile, eighty volatile compounds were identified, representing 95% of the total essential oil content, the main component of which is tetra-pentacontane (11.26%). Furthermore, results showed high antioxidant activity, with efficacy increasing in the order: Essential Oil > Chloroform extract > Ethereal extract > Ethanolic extract. In addition, both chloroformic extract and essential oil demonstrated significant antibacterial activity against all strains tested. This study highlights the influence of geographical variations and extraction solvents on the bioactivity of Inula viscosa, offering insights into its potential applications in pharmacology and nutraceuticals.

In this study, the effectiveness of using natural bio-coagulants and bio-flocculants to treat textile wastewater through the coagulation-flocculation method was examined. These bio-based agents have several advantages over chemical agents, including biodegradability, natural abundance, low toxicity, and low cost. A bio-coagulant (holm oak acorn (HOA)) and a bio-flocculant (cactus juice) were used to investigate the capacity for turbidity removal and decolorization of textile wastewater. The UV spectrophotometer was used to characterize the discharges before and after treatment, and the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD5) levels were calculated. Box-Behnken design (BBD) coupled with response surface methodology (RSM) were utilized to optimize the process and reduce turbidity and decolorization in textile wastewater. The obtained results show that under the optimal conditions (0.5 g. L-1 of HOA, 15 mL. L-1 of cactus juice, and a pH of 7), decolorization and turbidity removal were achieved at 69% and 90%, respectively. This study demonstrates the potential of using bio-coagulants and bio-flocculants in the treatment of textile wastewater.

Background: In traditional herbal medicine, Anchusa italica has sometimes been used to treat inflammatory diseases, wounds and sooth pain, but the scientific evidence supporting these uses is not solid. Given its traditional uses, we aim to evaluate the anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, healing and antidepressant pharmacological activities of root and leaf extracts from the A. italica. Methods: the phytochemical study was carried out by HPLC-MS analysis. The anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive and antidepressant activities were studied on male Wister rats, and healing activity on mal New Zealand rabbits. Extracts were administered orally using doses 200 and 400 mg/kg for anti-inflammatory activity, 400 mg/kg for analgesic activity, 200 mg/kg for antidepressant activity. Healing activity was studied using a cream containing 5 % of the extract topically. Results: The HPLC analysis found six phenolic compounds in the root extract and nine in the leaf extract. The anti-inflammatory test gave significant results (p

Forestry waste (FW) extracted parts of medicinal-aromatic plant waste (EPW) and unused parts (UPW) are considered potential resources for energy recovery (their heating value of approximately 19 MJ/kg). In order to valorize lignocellulosic biomass, a pretreatment process is required to hydrolyze the recalcitrant lignocellulosic complex into fermentable simple sugars. The aim of this study is to determine the best method of pretreatment that takes into account treatment time, efficiency, and environmental friendliness. The mixture of FW, EPW, and UPW was treated by simple and combined treatment using different methods like acid sulfuric (Ac), steam explosion (SE), and enzymatic (E) (cellulase and hemicellulase). The results showed that the combined and simple Ac treatments are the most efficient compared with SE and E treatments in the hydrolysis of polysaccharide of cellulose with a rate respectively of 90,5% and 77,6% and hemicellulose with a rate respectively of 80,63% and 87,14%. In addition, both of the preceding methods release an important rate of total phenolic compounds. Combined treatment demands high time but is friendly(approximately 1 day), and Ac treatment is less time-consuming(about 25 min) but harmful to the environment and causes the corrosion of equipment. In conclusion, combined treatment can be the best method and the high time required can be reduced with the progress of the research.

Context: The region of Fez-Meknes has a wide variety of aromatic and medicinal plants that can be explored in different ways to draw their virtues and overcome human health problems. Aims: To identify ethnobotanically the main medicinal plants and collect data about their uses in the region of Fez. Methods: During each interview, both the personal information and the plants used were collected. The questionnaire revealed the use frequency of each part of the plants (VPP). It also sheds light on the importance of each species (RFC). Furthermore, it showed the relative importance of the families and the method of preparation (FIV). Results: The results disclosed the richness of the region in terms of medicinal plants. A total of 57 species were identified and grouped into 24 families. The most abundant families were Lamiaceae (FIV = 5.461), Compositae (FIV= 6.085), and Apiaceae (FIV = 6.307). The most cited species were Plantago major L. (RFC = 27.3%), Olea europaea L. (RFC = 31.3 %), and Daphne gnidium L. (RFC = 32.6%). The leaves are the most plant part used (VPP = 0.416). The most used preparation method was decoction (32%). The most declared pathologies were digestive (16%), dermatological (15%), and respiratory affections (13%). Conclusions: The ethnobotanical study showed the region’s floristic richness and allowed the identification of the different plants involved in many recipes to overcome human health problems.

Similar to countries with arid and semi-arid climates, Morocco faces problems of degradation of the quality of its environment and more specifically the quality of groundwater. In this work, we approached the physico-chemical characterization of the raw effluents of three industrial units of the city of Fez, namely the textile industry (U1), the copperware industry (U2), olive oil industry (U3) chosen for their degree of pollution and their environmental impact, the aim of which is to highlight the degree and nature of the pollution generated by these effluents, and their biodegradability during the winter period January to February of 2018, when the waste water treatment plant (WWTP) is malfunctioning. A set of samplings and measurements of different physico-chemical pollution parameters were carried out such as: temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, salinity, chlorides, BOD5, COD, suspended solids (SS), Ca2+, K+, as well as heavy metals. The results show that the U3 effluent is highly loaded in organic matter with high COD (37600 mg O2/L) and BOD5 (13000 mg O2/L), while the U2 effluent contains very high concentrations of heavy metals (Pb, Ni, Zn, Cu, Cd) 91,8, 71, 55,4, 53, 28 mg/L, respectively. on the other hand, the U1 effluent is characterized by high SS contents, and concentrations of Ca2+, K+ exceed Moroccan standards. The COD/BOD5 ratio shows that U1 and U2 effluents are difficult to biodegrade even if their organic loads are low. In the light of these results, it is recommended that these discharges be pre-treated before they are discharged into the liquid sewer system.

The Papaver rhoeas L. (P. rhoeas) plant, which belongs to the Papaveraceae family, is also used as food and is exploited to treat several health problems. The purpose of this research is to determine the anti-struvite, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antidepressant effects of the stem extract (SE) and flower extract (FE) of the plant P. rhoeas. We used polarizing microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR) to evaluate the anti-struvite effect of our plant. The edema approach induced by the carrageenan molecule was used to study the anti-inflammatory impact of our extracts. The analgesic test was determined by calculating the number of abdominal contractions induced by the intraperitoneal (IP) administration of acetic acid. To evaluate the antidepressant effect of our extracts, we used the forced swimming test (FST). According to the results of the secondary metabolite extraction, both extracts contained high contents of secondary metabolites, while the results of the screening test showed that flavonoids, alkaloids, phenols, tannins, coumarins, saponins, and terpenoids were present. The result of struvite crystallization inhibition observed by polarizing microscopy and FT-IR shows the inhibition of struvite crystal aggregation by SE by decreasing the amount and size of crystals in a manner similar to cystone. The results of anti-inflammatory activity show maximum inhibition of edema after six hours of carrageenan injection in rats (T6) for all extracts, with a maximum value of 86.36% for SE at the dose of 200 mg/kg. Regarding the analgesic effect of our plant, the lowest number of abdominal contractions was observed in rats treated with SE at a dose of 400 mg/kg. The FST results show that the lowest immobilization time was observed in rats treated with FE at a dose of 400 mg/kg. The results obtained show that the flowers and stems of P. rhoeas can constitute a rich source of bioactive molecules with potential pharmaceutical applications.

Solid waste (SW) generated from extracting of essential oils from medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) is an abundant and renewable resource, but proper recycling is necessary to prevent negative environmental impacts from improper disposal. This study focused on converting SW from essential oil (EO) extraction industry by citric acid-catalyzed hydrothermal carbonization (c-HTC) coupled with chemical activation into a carbonaceous material to remove organic pollutants. For this purpose, an I-optimal design coupled with response surface methodology (RSM) was developed to investigate the relationship between the severity factor (SF) of the c-HTC process and citric acid dose (HTCcat) on carbon retention rate (CRR) and hydrochar mass yield (MY). Under optimal conditions (5.32 and 2 g for SF and HTCcat, respectively), an optimized hydrochar (HCop) was characterized by a CRR and MY of 71.02% and 56.14%, respectively. HCop was chemically activated by KOH solution (AHCop) and characterized by a specific surface area of 989.81 m2.g−1, a pore volume of 0.583 cm3.g−1, a higher heating value (HHV) of 37.3 MJ/Kg, oxygenated surface functions such as –OH, –COOH, C-O and a methylene blue (MB) removal rate of 90.71%. In addition, modelling of the adsorption isotherms found that the Freundlich isotherm better describes the experimental data, and the second-order model regulates the adsorption kinetics well. Furthermore, The maximum adsorption capacity of AHCop was 588.24 mg.g−1, with a separation factor of 0.625 under the operating conditions (t = 6 h, T = 25 °C, m(AHCop) = 0.2 g, [MB]0 = 300 mg.L-1, and pH = 7), indicating its potential for effectively removing organic pollutants. Together, these results provide crucial information on using c-HTC to convert waste biomass into functional carbon materials to remove organic pollutants efficiently. Therefore, several studies must be conducted out to discover other application fields of this material.

In this research, a comparative analysis was carried out to characterize the content of phenolics and biological activities of the whole plant of Papaver rhoeas L. (P. rhoeas) from different geographical regions of Morocco, as well as to determine the synergistic antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of all parts of P. rhoeas. The determination of total polyphenol content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and total anthocyanin content (TA) in extracts of whole plants of P. rhoeas from three different geographical regions: Taounate (P1E), Fez (P2E), and Sefrou (P3E) were estimated by the Folin–Ciocalteu reaction, the aluminum trichloride method and the differential pH absorption technique, respectively. Two tests were used to evaluate the antioxidant power of our samples: the DPPH test and the TAC test. Using two methods, disk diffusion and microdilution, antimicrobial activity was studied against four pathogenic bacteria and one yeast. The results of TPC, TFC, and TA show that the P3E sample is the richest in polyphenols, flavonoids, and anthocyanins, with values 37.33 ± 1.307 mg GAE/g, 4.72 ± 0.346 QE/g, and 1.77 ± 0.026 CGE/g, respectively. In addition, P3E showed the best antioxidant activity with an IC50 = 0.27 ± 0.001 mg/mL and TAC = 9.99 ± 0.768 mg AAE/g, respectively. The results of antimicrobial activity showed significant activity on almost all the tested strains. The lowest MIC was recorded for P3E against E. coli ATCC 25922 and E. coli CIP 53126 strains at 0.78 and 0.78 mg/mL, respectively. These results show that the geographical region can influence the plant’s phytochemistry and then these biological activities.

This study deals with the valorization of a biomaterial, almond shell, for the treatment of urban effluents of the city of Fez by a fixed bed column adsorption process. A parametric analysis of the process is carried out with conditions such as particle size, pH and height of the adsorbent bed to evaluate the optimal removal percent and obtain an optimal removal capacity of the adsorbent load. Characterization of the adsorbent prior to continuous adsorption was carried out by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy. The adsorption treatment seems to be influenced by certain parameters, such as the particle size of the biomaterial used, the height of the adsorption bed and the pH. The results suggest that this biomaterial can be used as a less expensive, available, biodegradable and very effective adsorbent to eliminate the load of urban waters on a small scale and why not on a large scale to replace chemicals in the treatment and to recover waste such as almond shell. The parameters measured reached maximum values varying between 82% for COD, 79% for EC and 71% for nitrite under well-defined operating conditions, with a particle size of 0.063 mm, a height column height of 7 cm and a pH of 6.5.

In Morocco, Cynara humilis L. is used in traditional medicine. The objective of this research was to research the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of hydroethanolic extracts from the C. humilis plant’s leaves and roots. The content of polyphenols and flavonoids was evaluated using Folin–Ciocalteu’s and aluminum chloride assays. Two techniques were used to evaluate antioxidant properties: antioxidant capacity in total (TAC) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhdrazyl (DPPH). In antimicrobial assays, five pathogenic microbial strains were studied including two Escherichia coli, one coagulase-negative Staphylococcus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, and one Candida albicans, by two techniques: agar disk diffusion and microdilution. Leaves had a greater content of flavonoids 27.07 mg QE/g of extract and the polyphenols 38.84 mg GAE/g of extract than root 24.39 mg QE/g of extract and 29.39 mg GAE/g of extract, respectively. The TAC test value of the 0.77 mg AAE/g extract in the leaf extract was found to be significantly greater than that of the 0.60 mg EAA/g extract in the root extract. The DPPH antioxidant assay IC50 values of the root and leaf extract were 0.23 and 0.93 µg/mL, respectively. C. humilis extracts showed an antimicrobial effect against all tested strains, the inhibitory zone (DIZ) have values in the range between 12 and 15 mm. Moreover, the root extract showed the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against coagulase-negative Staphylococcus with an IC50 value of 6.25 mg/mL. The higher content of flavonoids and polyphenols in the hydroethanolic extracts of C. humilis leaves and roots demonstrates that they have a significant antimicrobial and antioxidant effect, as found in this study.

Anchusa italica Retz has been used for a long time in phytotherapy. The aim of the present study was to determine the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of extracts from the leaves and roots of Anchusa italica Retz. We first determined the content of phenolic compounds and flavonoids using Folin–Ciocalteu reagents and aluminum chloride (AlCl3). The antioxidant activity was determined using three methods: reducing power (FRAP), 2.2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), total antioxidant capacity (TAC). The antimicrobial activity was investigated against four strains of Escherichia coli, two strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, and one fungal strain of Candida albicans. The results showed that the root extract was rich in polyphenols (43.29 mg GAE/g extract), while the leave extract was rich in flavonoids (28.88 mg QE/g extract). The FRAP assay showed a strong iron reduction capacity for the root extract (IC50 of 0.11 µg/mL) in comparison to ascorbic acid (IC50 of 0.121 µg/mL). The DPPH test determined an IC50 of 0.11 µg/mL for the root extract and an IC50 of 0.14 µg/mL for the leaf extract. These values are low compared to those for ascorbic acid (IC50 of 0.16 µg/mL) and BHT (IC50 0.20 µg/mL). The TAC values of the leaf and root extracts were 0.51 and 0.98 mg AAE/g extract, respectively. In vitro, the extract showed inhibitory activity against all strains studied, with diameters of zones of inhibition in the range of 11.00–16.00 mm for the root extract and 11.67–14.33 mm for the leaf extract. The minimum inhibitory concentration was recorded for the leaf extract against E. coli (ATB:57), corresponding to 5 mg/mL. Overall, this research indicates that the extracts of Anchusa italica Retz roots and leaves exert significant antioxidant and antibacterial activities, probably because of the high content of flavonoids and polyphenols.

The objective of this study is to valorize Papaver rhoeas L. from the Taounate region of Morocco by determining the total polyphenol content (TPC), the total flavonoid content (TFC) and the antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of four organs. The quantification of TPC and TFC in root, stem, leaf and flower extracts (RE, SE, LE and FE, respectively) was estimated by the Folin–Ciocalteu reaction and the aluminum trichloride method, respectively. Two tests were used to assess antioxidant power: the DPPH test and TAC assay. The antimicrobial activity was studied against five pathogenic bacteria and yeast, using two methods: disk diffusion and microdilution. The TPC in LE and LF was twice as high as that in RE and SE (24.24 and 22.10 mg GAE/g, respectively). The TFC values in the four extracts were very close and varied between 4.50 mg QE/g in the FE and 4.38 mg QE/g in the RE. The LE and FE showed low DPPH values with IC50 = 0.50 and 0.52 mg/mL, respectively. The TAC measurement revealed the presence of a significant amount of antioxidants in the studied extracts, mainly in LE and FE (6.60 and 5.53 mg AAE/g, respectively). The antimicrobial activity results revealed significant activity on almost all of the tested strains. The MIC of FE and SE against E. coli 57 was 1.56 and 0.78 mg/mL, respectively, while against the S. aureus it was 50 and 25 mg/mL, respectively. The low MLC value (1.56 mg/mL) was recorded against E. coli 57 by RE and SE.