eng Oriental Scientific Publishing Company Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia 0973-1245 2013-06-28 10 1 10.13005/bbra/1099 10181 article Salma Zine 1 Said Gharby 2 Miloud El Hadek 1 Laboratoire de Génie des Procédés, Faculté des Sciences, Université Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco. Etablissement Autonome de Contrôle et de Coordination des Exportations, Agadir, Morocco. Oil yield, physicochemical, tricylglecrols, fatty acid composition, sterols, tocopherols and stability oxidative of Opuntia ficus-indica seed oil obtained by cold pressing extraction were determined. Oil yield was between 6 - 7%. Nine triacylglycerols were identified, the major being LLL (24.94%), LLO (21.31%), LLP (15.90%), and OOL (13.76%). The main fatty acids ranked in the following order of abundance: C18:2 (60.8%), C18:1 (21.3%),C16:0 (11.9%), C18:0 3.4%). The quality and composition of some minor constituents of seed oil were determined. Total tocopherol content in seed oil was 94.6 mg/100 g, g-tocopherol (90%) was the main constituent. the sterol composition is similar to that of other vegetable oils, level of sterols making up 90.33 mg/100g seed oil was present. The sterol marker, b-sitosterol, accounted for 75.3% of the total sterol content in the seed oil. This oil presented a moderate content in phospholipids. https://www.biotech-asia.org/vol10no1/physicochemical-characterization-of-opuntia-ficus-indica-seed-oil-from-morocco/ Opuntia ficus indica; Seed oil; Phytosterol; Fatty acid; Tocopherol; Phospholipids