Karim Houmanat

Université Moulay Ismail | UMI · Department of Biology

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) cultivation holds significant potential for enhancing agricultural sustainability, offering benefits such as increased grain yields, product diversification, and nutritional value. Despite facing abandonment by some farmers in Morocco, notably due to shifting agricultural practices, the cultivation of faba bean has maintai...

Oilseed crops are the second largest food source after cereals, with a wide distribution worldwide due to the high demand for edible vegetable oils. With important functions in nutritional physiology and human health, vegetable oils are essential components of human diet (Ebrahimian et al., 2019). Among oilseed crops, sunflower (Helianthus annuus L...

Assessment of genetic diversity of wild strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo l.) genotypes from Morocco using ISSR markers. Agriculture and Forestry, 69 (4): 135-155. SUMMARY The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity among 36 wild strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo L.) genotypes belonging to different altitude and geographical origins, usin...

Introduction Ficus carica L. seeds are a substantial source of minor oil with high unsaturation levels and potent antioxidant properties. The study aims to evaluate the mineral composition, lipodomic profile, and vibrational fingerprints of 22 fig genotypes utilizing FTIR-ATR techniques and chemometrics. Methods FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and chemometr...

Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus L., which has a special aroma, colour and odour influencing positively its economic value. In this context, ten saffron ecotypes were screened for their biochemical composition and antioxidant activity. The samples were also analysed using GC‐MS and LC‐MS to determine their content of vol...

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) crop can be a lever for the development of oilseed sector in Morocco due to its adaptation to local conditions and its major economic and food importance. Genetic diversity and selection of valuable crossing parents are the key to successful breeding and improvement of this crop. In this regard, genetic variation within...

Morocco is one of the most important fig (Ficus carica L.) diversity hotspots globally, where its cultivation is ancestral. This large diversity, alongside its valorization, has gone unheeded for many reasons, some of which have to do with ancient agricultural strategies besides the lack of exhaustive studies. Although being the third worldwide fig...

BACKGROUND The pomegranate (Punica granatum) is an ancient perennial plant species of the Punicaceae family. Its seeds are consumed as food or as juice. Previous studies have noted that pomegranate juice encompasses many active compounds with beneficial effects. The main goals of this work were to study the phenolic components of freeze‐dried and r...

Rapeseed ( Brassica napus L.) crop can be a lever for the development of oilseed sector in Morocco due to its adaptation to local conditions and its major economic and food importance. Breeding is the key to the success of this crop and judicious choice of crossing parents is a prerequisite to the success of the selection program and the developmen...

There is a need for plum breeding in Morocco to release efficient and adapted varieties, which requires the existence of genetic variability in the studied material. Molecular characterization of 29 plum cultivars, from a Moroccan ex-situ collection, was carried out using 20 Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) primers. A high level of genetic vari...

Fig (Ficus carica L.) is one of the most emblematic trees in the Mediterranean region. Over time its propagation is carried out via stem cuttings, a procedure that favors the occurrence of varietal confusion among genotypes when it is not controlled. DNA fingerprinting using molecular primers such as simple sequence repeats (SSR) has become an impo...

Pomegranate tree is cultivated since ancient times in Morocco, where a high genetic diversity is hosted mainly in traditional agroecosystems. Over the past decade, it regained importance through extension of cultivated area, but remains thus far little valued. To date, its genetic variability and chemodiversity have gone unheeded for many reasons,...

Combining phenotypic and genotypic germplasm characterization is a key to efficient and successful safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) breeding program by identifying valuable and confirmed parents. This study aimed to investigate and use appropriate statistical methods for such a characterization, and to identify potential genetic pools in safflow...

Vibrational spectroscopy analysis of full-ripened fig fruits (Ficus carica L.) was acquired using Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy by attenuated total reflectance (ATR). The objective of this study was to investigate accurate discrimination of 25 fig cultivars using chemometric analysis of both ATR–FTIR fingerprinting and in-vitro a...

Simple Summary: Primary and secondary metabolites are among the markers for addressing fig chemotypic variability. These compounds are mainly driven by the cultivar factor besides chromatic coordinates color as they are highly correlated to these biomarkers. Combined use of chemical analytical procedures and vibrational spectroscopy is of great imp...

Primary and secondary metabolites are among the markers for addressing fig chemotypic variability. These compounds are mainly driven by the cultivar factor besides chromatic coordinates color as they are highly correlated to these biomarkers. Combined use of chemical analytical procedures and vibrational spectroscopy is of great importance for a be...

Figs are a traditional pantry staple for healthy eating in Middle Eastern and North African countries as fig trees grow abundantly in such hot and dry climates. Despite the importance of this species, chemotypic diversity has gone unheeded and therefore its valorization pathways remain poorly documented. For this reason, high-pressure liquid chroma...

The effect of ascorbic acid (AA) and salicylic acid (SA) used separately at the following concentrations 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 %, on enzymatic browning and quality of “Nabout’’ dried fig during 6 weeks-storage at 4 °C within sealed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bags, was investigated. The results showed that AA and SA at higher concentrations, partic...

In the present study, chromatic coordinates, phenolic acids, flavonoids and antioxidant capacity assessed by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,20 -azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline6-sulfonate (ABTS) and lipid peroxidation inhibition capacity (LPIC) essays and their relative IC50 were investigated in 25 fig cultivars growing in Morocco. The ai...

Fig (Ficus carica L.) seeds are the less studied part of the species so far. They are usually discarded after their processing and scarcely studied for nutraceutical purposes. For this reason, the present work reports the lipochemical properties of fig seeds extracted from four fig cultivars conducted in an ex-situ collection. Oil was chemically ex...

Agronomic potential of traditional sunflower spring varieties is low because its flowering and grain filling are often exposed to mid and end-season drought. To overcome this, new breeding strategy consisted of selecting varieties tolerant to winter cold in order to shift to autumn or early winter planting. Nowadays, ‘Ichraq’ is the only one regist...

There is a need for sesame ( Sesamum indicum L.) breeding in Morocco to release performant and adapted varieties, which requires a large genetic variability in the germplasm to be used. In this context, genetic diversity of sesame populations from different locations in Tadla area was investigated using ISSR (Inter Sequence Simple Repeats) markers...

In Morocco, walnut tree (Juglans regia L.) cultivation is ancestral with complicated misidentification and unknown local genetic diversity. Atlas Mountains host a rich walnut tree germplasm, which has arisen from seedlings. The use of molecular markers makes it possible to overcomes confusion usually encountered in phenotypic characterization, ther...

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is one of the oilseed crops that have important agronomic and environmental benefits, mainly adaptation to arid and semi-arid environmental conditions. This enables it to be a good alternative oilseed crop for Morocco and other Mediterranean countries which are exposed to an increased climate change trend. The pr...

Safflower (Carthamustinctorius L.) is a minor hardy crop well adapted to semi-arid conditions, which could be considered as alternative oilseed crop in climate change context. Evaluation of broad genetic base germplasm under such particular conditions is a crucial phase in breeding program. During 2013-2014, a total of 62 accessions from different...

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) is a minor hardy crop well adapted to semi-arid conditions, mainly in climate change context. In Morocco, it could be cultivated as good alternative for barley based monocropping system characterizing southern region of the country. Recently, a breeding program has been launched in order to develop varieties adap...

Agronomic potential of traditional sunflower spring varieties is low because their flowering and grain filling are often exposed to mid and end-season drought. To overcome this, new breeding strategy consisted of selecting varieties tolerant to winter cold in order to shift to autumn or early winter planting. Nowadays, ‘Ichraq’ is the only register...

Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) is an oilseed crop with high quality vegetable seed oil. A set of 55 accessions from different geographical origins were introduced to constitute a breeding program germplasm. These materials were characterized by inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) as a simple method to reveal polymorphism among them. ISSR analysis...