Conservation of Leaves of a Medicinal Plant of Western Algeria （Pistacia atlantica）

In our context, and in the goal to valorize the Pistacia atlantica species Desfthat grows spontaneously in Algeria occidental except the coastline, and that is used by the nomadic populations in their daily consumptions, we are thinking about drying its leaves. Here, the biochemical analysis of dried leaves ofPistacia atlantica is determined, the sorption is other ms are of great importance in the food industry, especially in the drying; the sorption isotherms of pistachio leaves were measured by the gravimetric method at three temperatures 40, 50 and 60 ℃. The equilibrium was achieved after eight days for desorption and seven days for adsorption with water activity ranging from 5% to 90%. Only the GAB and Peleg models were found to be the most suitable for describing the sorption curves. The isosteric heat of sorption of Pistacia atlantica leaves decreases with an increase in moisture content and was found to be an exponential function of moisture content for adsorption and desorption. The pistachio leaves could be considered as a rich natural source of valuable nutriments （carbohydrates, proteins and lipids）; lipid fraction is equal to 2.25%; proteins are the second macronutriment that predominates in these sheets： 4.35%; accordingly carbohydrates content was about 25.77%.