Argan oil: from nutrition to health

Abstract

The argan oil, extracted from argan-tree fruits, has been used in traditional medicine as a natural remedy for several centuries. Argan oil is traditionally used for skin, nail and hair care, cooking, massaging, and healing. Its chemical composition highlights the interest of many laboratories to use it in their best-selling products. The remarkable properties of the argan oil evaluated by numerous laboratories are: restoration of the skin water-lipid layer and an increase in nutrients in the skin cells, stimulation of intracellular oxygen, neutralization of free radicals, and protection of the conjunctive tissue. Recently, various studies were realized, in vitro or on human and animal models, suggesting that argan oil could play a beneficial role in cardiovascular disease prevention and its consumption could protect against atherosclerosis through a variety of biological mechanisms. It is because of its high contents of specific antioxidants and mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids, that argan oil could be useful in preventing cardiovascular diseases and cancer. It has been demonstrated that consumption of argan oil is associated with a benefic change in serum lipids and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in healthy subjects. Its consumption could also increase antioxidant compounds in the serum of healthy men. Thus, the value of argan oil is of high priority as preventive nutritional approach to prevent the cardiovascular risk. Previous experimental studies have shown the antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of polyphenols and sterols extracted from argan oil on prostate cancer cell lines. These data suggest that argan oil is of potential interest in developing new strategies for prostate cancer prevention. The current data give a unique value as natural source with high economic value to argan oil not only in Morocco but world wide.