Nutritional and phenolic characterization of moringa oleifera leaves grown in sinaloa, mexico

The present study shows the results of a research done on the chemical composition, minerals, fatty acid (FA) and phenolic compounds contents, and antioxidant capacity in two variants of Moringaoleifera leaves grown in Sinaloa, Mexico. The leaves of the two variants of Moringa oleifera revealed high protein content (31.69-36.83%, db). The mineral analysis of dried leaves showed the following minerals content: calcium=15.08-15.58 goKg-1, magnesium=3.55-3.62 goKg-1, sodium=1.42-1.54 goKg-1, potassium=2.69-3.01 goKg-1, iron=120.19-105.31 ppm, manganese=54.5-59.77 ppm, zinc=56.48-46.89 ppm and copper=10.92-7.96 ppm. The main fatty acids were linolenic acid (62.72-66.19%) having the highest value, followed by palmitic (17.13-17.26%), linoleic (9.65-7.64%), oleic (3.24- 2.14%), and stearic acid (2.71-2.66%). The total dietary fiber (TDF) content was found at levels of 29.16-29.11% (db). On average, the three most abundant amino acids in both variants were tyrosine, glutamate, aspartate, histidine, phenylalanineand leucine acid. The two Moringa variants showed total phenolic and flavonoids contents of 71.08-76.63 mg EAGog-1 (db) and 55.7-60.3 mg QEog-1 (db), respectively. The antioxidant capacity of the ORAC assay was 154.71-182.31 mu mol ETog-1 (db), while the DPPH assay value was 86.82-87.92%. Finally, gallic, chlorogenic, caffeic, coumaric and ferulic acids were found in a concentration range of 1.238-1.193, 0.585-0.568, 0.503-0.485, 1.090-1.114 and 0.536-0.518 mgog-1, respectively. Our results show that Moringa oleifera leaves are an important source of protein, fatty acids, minerals and phenolic compounds that could be used in food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industry. (author)