- Title
- Nutritional and pharmacological profile of moringa oleifera lam. Leaves cultivated in the South African ecotype
- Creator
- Yako, Zomsa
- Subject
- Moringa
- Date Issued
- 2019
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MSc
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/14605
- Identifier
- vital:40021
- Description
- Moringa oleifera Lam. is native to the Indian ecotype, which has become naturalized in many tropic and subtropic regions worldwide, thus a great variation in the bioactive compounds of the plant is recorded. The introduction of Moringa oleifera to South Africa occurred in the turn of the twentieth century with the aim of combating malnourishment, aiding health and fostering economic development. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of evaluating and authenticating the nutritional parameters, essential oil and bioactive components found in the various solvent extracts of Moringa oleifera leaves cultivated in the South African ecotype. It also elucidated some of the plants medicinal properties by investigating the antioxidant and antibacterial properties of the plant. The essential oil of the leaves was extracted using two methods (solvent free microwave extraction and hydrodistillation) and analysed using Gas Chromotography/Mass Spectrometer. The safety profile of the leaves was investigated using brine shrimp model. The results from the study revealed that Moringa oleifera leaves cultivated in South Africa were rich in crude protein levels (28.72%) and carbohydrate (28.84%). Among the minerals tested for, the leaves contained high content of calcium (1603.33 mg/100 g), potassium (1690 mg/100 g), zinc (13.03 mg/100 g) and iron (21.13 mg/100 g). The vitamin E content had the highest concentration (89.43 mg/100 g) among the vitamins evaluated. The leaves of Moringa oleifera had low quantities of antinutrients in relation to minerals, thus ensuring nutrients availability. This study identified 15 fatty acids in the dried leaves of Moringa. The highest fatty acid detected were polyunsaturated fatty acids, linoleic acid (56.36) and alpha-linolenic acid (687.58), 7 of the fatty acids were saturated fatty acids, though relatively low besides stearic acid. 15 amino acids were present, 7 of which were essential amino acids, namely; threonine, tyrosine, methionine, valine, phenylalanine, isoleucine and leucine. vi Among the phytochemicals evaluated, the aqueous extract gave the highest total phenolic content (21.01 ± 2.315 mg GAE/g), the acetone extract gave the highest proanthocyanidin (15.33 3.5 mg CE/g) and flavonoid contents (25.04±3.28 mg QE/g), while saponin and alkaloid contents were 27.73 ± 9.97% and 7.32 ± 2.73 % respectively. All the extracts exhibited high radical scavenging power against the 2,2- diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical with an IC50 less than 0.025 mg/mL. Aqueous extract gave the highest capacity based on ABTS and TAC assays with IC50 of 0.074 mg/ mL and 0.055 mg/mL respectively. Ethanol extract exhibited the least antioxidant capacity among the extracts, as well as the least antimicrobial activity on both Gram −ve and Gram +ve bacteria with all its minimum inhibitory concentration values greater than 5 mg/mL. The acetone extract exhibited the strongest antimicrobial activity among the extracts. A total of 8 and 24 chemical compounds were found from the solvent-free microwave extracted and hydrodistilled oils, respectively. The major components found from hydrodistillation were 2-Hexanal (16.37%), Nonanal (6.09%), 5 9-undecadien-2-one 6, 10 dimethyl- (e) - (8.01%), trans-beta-Ionone (8.02%) and octadecane (9.67%). For the solvent free microwave extracted oil, Benzene acetaldehyde (5.68%), Octadecane, Pentacosane and Eicosane which were 11.03%, were the major components. Toxicity evaluation revealed that mortality was time dependent. As the exposure period increased, mortality kept increasing. The hatching success of the cysts in acetone, aqueous and ethanol extracts were 35.7, 33.6 and 35.2% respectively. Acetone extract showed the most prominent hatching success. Hatchability and lethality were in a concentration dependent fashion. Among the extracts, acetone extract exhibited the highest lethality (12.3%) to the nauplii, followed by ethanol (10.9%), then aqueous (5.6%) extracts. All the results obtained from this study suggest that Moringa has the potential of eradicating malnutrition and aid health. It contains the necessary nutritional and bioactive compounds and the leaves proved not to be toxic at the levels (0.0625 – 1 mg/mL) tested.
- Format
- 161 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science and Agriculture
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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UFH Department of Botany
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Msc. dissertation Yako Z..pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |