Argan leaves aqueous extract?s antioxidant activity and mild steel corrosion inhibition ability 3Laboratory of the Improvement of Agricultural Production, Biotechnology and

The aim of this study is the valorization of Argan leaves' Aqueous Extract (ALAE) as a potential industrial alternative for Argania spinosa kernels' extracts. The chemical composition of ALAE was investigated by HPLC/UV-VIS/DAD and we successively identified 5 compounds in which quercetin and its derivatives represent 85.47%. We also evaluated the antioxidant activity via two assays DPPH* scavenging activity and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP). The concentration required to achieve 50% of antioxidant activity is 142.53 +/- 1.26 mu g/mL and 129.68 +/- 3.42 mu g/mL, respectively, which was compared to standard antioxidants such as gallic acid (17.41 +/- 2.15 mu g/mL, 17.01 +/- 1.35 mu g/mL) and ascorbic acid (56.26 +/- 1.09 mu g/mL, 37.93 +/- 0.65 mu g/mL). The assessment of the corrosion inhibition of mild steel was carried out using three techniques: weight loss measurements, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and polarization curves. Acting as a mixed type corrosion inhibitor and obeying to Langmuir adsorption isotherm, the ALAE inhibition efficiencies obtained by the three techniques are 79%, 82%, and 82%, respectively.