(506e) All for One and One for All Research: Moringa Oleifera Lam. in Food, Health and Environmental Applications

The Moringa oleifera Lam. (MO) plant has characteristics that makeS it suitable for various uses related to environmental remediation, development of cosmetics, pharmaceutical and food products, among others. This project contemplates and put together several areas of science, including: engineering and biomedicine with several objectives framed within a circular economy, bioeconomy and sustainability approach. The intention is to i. promote the use of MO available in Ecuador, as a biomaterial with rheological contributions; ii. extract bioactive chemical compounds; iii. evaluate its antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxicity activities; iv. take advantage of the waste generated during moringa oil extraction processes for use in water recovery processes; and, v. develop food, cosmetic, nutraceutical, therapeutic and environmentally applicable products.

In Ecuador, MO is mostly used in nutraceutics and as a dietary complement[1]. MO has high nutritional content and provides rheological fluid characteristics. The protein content of Ecuadorian MO powder from its leaf is 29.46 g/100 g and from cotyledon (oil free, and provided as waste, that is, residual lignocellulosic biomass) is 48.28 g/100 g. These values exceed those present in foods of plant origin such as soybeans, quinoa and beans; and, also surpassing the values in foods such as beef and poultry [2]. On the other hand, the content of total carbohydrates in the powder of dry moringa leaves was lower than that of products such as quinoa, beans, corn, rice and wheat [3]; while crude fiber content is comparable to that found in foods such as oats, bread, whole wheat pasta and cooked lentils [4].

Due to these characteristics, a novel cereal-based food product was developed in which wheat flour was partially substituted in 0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, 7%, and 9%. The addition of the same cotyledon powder was found to significantly (p <0.05) increase the protein content for all formulations, and iron content for the 7% and 9% formulations; furthermore, sodium and calcium content changed significantly, while fat content remained constant. In parallel, the viscosity behavior of these formulations was evaluated as a function of temperature, concentration and shear stresses. The behavior was found to be pseudoplastic and thixotropic.

The leaves, seeds and pods are characterized by having adsorbing, coagulating, flocculating and filtering properties [5]–[8]. In environmental science, this project promotes research on the improvement of the removal of metals and emerging organic compounds, coagulation-flocculation processes, and filtration of pollutants [1], [7], [8]. Among recent results, around 90% of lead present in artificial water was adsorbed by seeds, while cadmium was removed by 60%. In addition, the adsorbent capacity during the removal of nickel, copper, and chromium was evidenced with removal percentages of 50%, 40%, and 25%, respectively [1]. On the issue of emerging contaminants, such as caffeine, a protein extract (with NaCl) from the cotyledon managed to remove caffeine present in water. When the initial concentration of caffeine was 5 ppm, the fenton process reached a removal of 67% in 5 min, while the removal with 5 mL of MO protein was 61%, reached in 60 min. Although the removal time is longer, the process described with MO seed extract is technically feasible to remove organic emerging pollutants, such as caffeine.

In other study, regarding coagulation-flocculation processes, we reported a 54% COD reduction where three main water bodies (that cross the city of Quito) were analyzed. Besides, more than 80% and 90% removal in turbidity and E. Coli were achieved, respectively, if only applying that treatment to crude water. The process did not require the addition of chemicals. Also, iron filtration experiments, with borosilicate columns of 1.1 cm-diameter, moringa husk (waste) was used and packed at different heights. Initially, the maximum removal value was 98.5% and 91.2% after 4 h of operation, which indicates that moringa is a competent adsorbent. The adsorption process is that of a physisorption process, supported by both the isotherm models and the FTIR spectrum. A physisorption filter model (Bulk Balance Filtration Model) has also been developed [8].

As for MO leaves, they have a powerful mix of direct and indirect antioxidants that could be responsible for several beneficial health effects [9]. The antioxidant capacity was determined to be greater under the influence of methanolic solvent than under aqueous by a factor of 17 times. However, in the cytotoxic evaluation by means of MTT assay of the lyophilized extracts, the aqueous extract showed less cytotoxicity in comparison to the methanolic, as cells resulted to be more susceptible to concentrations ranging from 0.05 to 5 mg/L. These results concluded that moringa leaf extracts are a natural source of antioxidants and could be incorporated into formulations in food and health industries.

Another example of product development is the encapsulation of skin-care products with MO and other lignocellulosic biomass extracts. Some advantages are that waste is minimized, transportation packing becomes lighter and easier, and the versatility of this method of conservation is its main strength.

MO cultivated in Ecuador and its waste shows the potential to: remove contaminants from water, increase nutritional power, modify the rheology of products, act as antimicrobial, and incorporate its bioactive compounds from this sustainable biomaterial in innovative food, pharmaceutical and environmental products, within green engineering concepts.

References

[1] A. C. Landázuri, J. Cahuasqui, and A. Lagos, “Metal adsorption in aqueous media using Moringa oleifera Lam. seeds produced in Ecuador as an alternative method for water treatment,” Av. en Ciencias e Ing. USFQ, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 190–205, 2019, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18272/aci.v11i2.

[2] F. Marangoni et al., “Role of poultry meat in a balanced diet aimed at maintaining health and wellbeing: An Italian consensus document,” Food Nutr. Res., vol. 59, pp. 1–11, 2015, doi: 10.3402/fnr.v59.27606.

[3] M. J. Kozioł, “Chemical composition and nutritional evaluation of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.),” J. Food Compos. Anal., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 35–68, Mar. 1992, doi: 10.1016/0889-1575(92)90006-6.

[4] I. Elmadfa and A. Meyer, Tabla de contenido de Fibra de los alimentos. Hispano Europea, 2015.

[5] G. S. Madrona, M. R. S. Scapim, L. A. C. Tonon, M. H. M. Reis, C. M. Paraiso, and R. Bergamasco, “Use of Moringa oleifera in a combined coagulation-filtration process for water treatment,” Chem. Eng. Trans., vol. 57, no. 2011, 2017, doi: 10.3303/CET1757200.

[6] M. C. and S. Neogi, “A natural coagulant protein from Moringa oleifera : isolation, characterization, and potential use for water treatment,” Mater. Res. Express, vol. 4, no. 10, p. 105502, 2017.

[7] A. C. Landázuri et al., “Experimental evaluation of crushed Moringa oleifera Lam. seeds and powder waste during coagulation-flocculation processes,” J. Environ. Chem. Eng., vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 5443–5451, Aug. 2018, doi: 10.1016/J.JECE.2018.08.021.

[8] A. C. Landázuri, J. S. Villarreal, J. C. Andrade, I. Sornoza, and A. S. Lagos, “Bulk balance filtration model (BBFM) for lead and iron physisorption through Moringa oleifera Lam. seed husks,” J. Environ. Chem. Eng., vol. 7, no. 5, p. 103302, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.jece.2019.103302.

[9] T. B. Tumer, P. Rojas-Silva, A. Poulev, I. Raskin, and C. Waterman, “Direct and indirect antioxidant activity of polyphenol- and isothiocyanate-enriched fractions from moringa oleifera,” J. Agric. Food Chem., vol. 63, no. 5, pp. 1505–1513, 2015, doi: 10.1021/jf505014n.