882 Emir. J. Food Agric ● Vol 34 ● Issue 10 ● 2022 Nutritional and mineral composition analysis of desert plants: A case study Javed Iqbal 1# , Aqeela Shaheen 2,# , Muhammad Awais Ghani 3 *, Qumer Iqbal 4 , Muhammad Azam 3 , Basharat Ali 1 *, Anam Noor 5 , Adeel Anwar 6 , Muhammadi Bibi 6 , Rashid Iqbal 7 , Iqra Anwar 2 , Muhammad Aslam 7 , Imran Mahmood 8 1 Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology (KFUEIT), Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan, 2 Department of Chemistry, Govt. Sadiq College Women University Bahawalpur, Pakistan, 3 Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan, 4 Fibast, LLC. 1602 Mizell Road, Tuskegee, AL 36083, USA, 5 Department of Horticulture Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan, 6 PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan, 7 Department of Agronomy, Islamia University Bahawalpur, Pakistan, 8 Department of Agronomy, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Pakistan # Both authors equally contributed Corresponding author: Muhammad Awais Ghani,Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology (KFUEIT), Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan. E-mail: awais.ghani@uaf.edu.pk Basharat Ali, Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology (KFUEIT), Rahim Yar Khan 64200, Pakistan. E-mail: dr.basharat@kfueit.edu.pk Received: 01 June 2022; Accepted: 11 September 2022 INTRODUCTION Most of population in the deserts of south Asia is still living under hard environmental and economic condition. Due to the defciency of fast transportation, allopathic medicine, infrastructure and qualified personnel, the populations of desert areas in South Asia rely almost solely to wildly grown traditional herbs which are also used as vegetables in these regions. The Great Indian Desert is one of the largest deserts (200,000 km 2 ) of the word, located between India and Pakistan. A large population of these deserts are subsistence farmers and nomadic tribes which are dependent on the wild grown raw plants for nutrition and treatment of common diseases (Akbar et al., 1996). These plants provide food, fber, medicines and shelter material to the inhabitants (Arshad et al., 2002). Among these plants, Calligonum polygonoides, Leptadenia pyrotechanica, Capparis decidua,and Prosopis cineraria are of fundamental importance due to their abundance and versatile use. Calligonum polygonoides and Leptadenia pyrotechanica are dominantly found in arid areas of desert ecosystem (Vyas et al., 2012). The fower buds of Calligonum polygonoides are effectively used for sunstroke treatment and the aqueous paste of stem acts as an antidote against the heavy doses of opium and also against the poisonous effects of certain harmful plants (Singh et al., 1996). Leptadenia pyrotechanica is used for relieving pain and infammation, as well as in a number of metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity (Rekha et al., 2013). On the other hand, Capparis decidua and Prosopis cineraria are semi-arid plants of desert. Capparis decidua is a multipurpose woody shrub whose bark and roots has been used in the treatment of cough, fever, asthma and infammation(Joseph and Jini, 2011).Similarly, The wild arid and semi-arid plants of desert are used as food and medicine by the people of Desert. In this case study, selected plants were characterized physico-chemically for their nutritional and mineral importance by different analytical methods. Analysis showed that crude fbers and protein dominated in plant samples among all nutrients with an average concentration of 38% and 21% respectively. The edible parts of plants generally showed higher concentration of Ca and Mg as compared to Na and K. Calligonum polygonoides found comparatively rich in total sugars and ash contents. Similarly, crude fbers (45%), crude lipids (16%) and phosphorous (32 ppm) were observed higher in Leptadenia pyrotechnica. However, Prosopis cineraria contained higher contents of moisture and protein (24%) among other plants. The statistical presentation by discrimination analysis showed that arid plant found rich in most of the nutrients and minerals except phosphorous and proteins as compared to semi-arid plants with relatively higher moisture contents. Keywords: Desert; Minerals; Nutritional analysis; Sugars; Proteins; Vegetables. ABSTRACT Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture. 2022. 34(10): 882-887 doi: 10.9755/ejfa.2022.v34.i10.2926 http://www.ejfa.me/ RESEARCH ARTICLE