## 3 Results and Discussion
### Moisture  
Among the different parameters to estimate the nutritional value of foods, we need to analyze the moisture content [58]. In our study, significant differences were found in the moisture content of carob pulp among the different origins: Lebanon, Spain, and Morocco. Lebanese carob pulp scored the highest average moisture content (6.40 \(\pm\) 1.43%) followed by the Spanish samples (4.87 \(\pm\) 1.24%) and the Moroccan carob pulp samples (4.36 \(\pm\) 0.77%). Moisture content is essential for predicting food behavior during processing, storage, and consumption [59]. In general, carob pod moisture content varies between 3%  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c c c c} \hline  & **Morocco** & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Spain**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Lebanon**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**\(p\)-Value**} \\ \hline
**Nutritional** & **Mean** & **Min.** & **Max.** & **Mean** & **Min.** & **Max.** & **Mean** & **Min.** & **Max.** & \\ \hline Protein (\%) & 5.52 \(\pm\) 1.76 a & 3.02 & 9.74 & 4.55 \(\pm\) 1.67 ab & 2.18 & 10.46 & 4.40 \(\pm\) 0.98 b & 2.41 & 6.47 & * \\ Lipids (\%) & 0.36 \(\pm\) 0.09 a & 0.17 & 0.52 & 0.27 \(\pm\) 0.09 b & 0.17 & 0.58 & 0.30 \(\pm\) 0.15 ab & 0.16 & 0.85 & * \\ Carbowdrates (\%) & 86.48 \(\pm\) 2.57 ab & 80.95 & 91.11 & 87.79 \(\pm\) 2.06 a & 81.83 & 90.67 & 85.87 \(\pm\) 2.49 b & 80.59 & 90.67 & ** \\ Fiber (\%) & 35.70 \(\pm\) 0.81 & 34.30 & 37.20 & 36.00 \(\pm\) 0.83 & 34.40 & 37.30 & 35.90 \(\pm\) 0.90 & 34.20 & 37.60 & n.s. \\ Ash (\%) & 3.28 \(\pm\) 1.62 & 1.04 & 7.11 & 2.52 \(\pm\) 0.65 & 1.28 & 3.95 & 3.02 \(\pm\) 1.37 & 1.32 & 6.59 & n.s. \\ Moisture (\%) & 4.36 \(\pm\) 0.77 b & 3.34 & 6.69 & 4.87 \(\pm\) 1.24 b & 3.22 & 9.08 & 6.40 \(\pm\) 1.43 a & 2.94 & 9.33 & *** \\ \hline
**Simple sugars** & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Fructose (g/100 g) & 7.73 \(\pm\) 1.72 a & 4.42 & 11.65 & 7.50 \(\pm\) 1.50 a & 2.62 & 10.37 & 4.95 \(\pm\) 1.99 b & 2.20 & 9.44 & *** \\ Glucose (g/100 g) & 3.16 \(\pm\) 1.75 a & 0.60 & 6.81 & 2.85 \(\pm\) 1.16 ab & 0.48 & 5.86 & 2.03 \(\pm\) 1.47 b & 0.43 & 6.59 & * \\ Sucrose (g/100 g) & 13.70 \(\pm\) 6.41 b & 4.23 & 28.59 & 28.10 \(\pm\) 7.67 a & 6.38 & 38.05 & 25.6 \(\pm\) 9.63 a & 4.28 & 48.36 & *** \\ \hline \end{tabular}  
***: Extremely significant (\(p\)-value \(<\) 0.001); **:**: Very significant (\(p\)-value \(<\) 0.01); *: Significant (\(p\)-value \(<\) 0.05); n.s.: not significant. The lowercase letters indicate statistical groupings, where means with the same letter are not significantly different and means with different letters are significantly different.  
\end{table}
Table 1: Nutritional (total content) and simple sugar contents studied were expressed in concentration \(\pm\) standard deviation (SD) of carob pulp dry weight (DW) as well as minimum (Min.) and maximum (Max.) for each component in each country.  
to 20% [2; 57]. In this study, the percentage of carob moisture ranges between 4.36 \(\pm\) 0.77% and 6.40 \(\pm\) 1.43%. According to the literature, grinding carob pods could affect their equilibrium moisture content, with smaller particle sizes resulting in higher amounts in the powder [60]. Moreover, the moisture content of carob powder can be affected by environmental conditions, varieties, ripening, harvesting time, and the type of storage process [2; 61]. Few studies have addressed the moisture in carob and specifically in carob pulp. In fact, we found several examples in the literature regarding the variability of this parameter, i.e., Moroccan carob collected in four different regions showed ranges between 8.97% and 10.41% [56].