Efectos benéficos de la Moringa oleífera en la salud de las personas / Effects of Moringa oleifera on Human Health

Introducción: El programa nacional cubano de la agricultura urbana y suburbana prioriza la promoción, venta, divulgación del cultivo casero y a nivel comunitario de la Moringa oleífera, pues se le atribuyen múltiples beneficios para el bienestar general del ser humano. Objetivo: Describir los efectos benéficos de la Moringa oleífera en la salud de las personas. Métodos: Se realizó una búsqueda de la literatura relevante sobre el tema, en el mes de agosto de 2020. Se utilizaron como buscadores de información científica a SciELO, Pubmed, Google y Google Académico. La estrategia de búsqueda incluyó los siguientes términos como palabras clave: moringa oleífera, nutrición, efectos benéficos. Se evaluaron artículos de revisión, de investigación y páginas web que, en general, tenían menos de 10 años de publicados, en idioma español, portugués e inglés, y que hicieran referencia específicamente al tema de estudio a través del título. Esto permitió evaluar 68 artículos, de los cuales 36 fueron referenciados. Conclusiones: La Moringa oleífera, es una planta apreciada por sus propiedades nutricionales, nutracéuticas y funcionales. Ejerce un efecto benéfico en la salud de las personas, atribuibles fundamentalmente a sus propiedades antioxidantes, insulinosensibilizantes e inmunomoduladoras, con amplias consecuencias de protección sobre varios órganos y de equilibrio en el metabolismo de los carbohidratos, los lípidos y las proteínas. Asimismo, se plantea que, posee efectos anticancerígenos, antiinflamatorios y actividad antimicrobiana, antifúngica, antiviral y antihelmíntica, entre otras cualidades. De ahí, su empleo como suplemento nutricional y coadyuvante en la prevención y el tratamiento de múltiples enfermedades(AU)

Introduction: The Cuban national program for urban and suburban agriculture has among its priorities the promotion, sale and dissemination of the home and community cultivation of Moringa oleifera, since it is attributed multiple benefits for the general well-being of the human being. Objective: To describe in a general way, the beneficial effects of Moringa oleifera on people's health. Method: A search of the relevant literature on the subject was carried out in August 2020. Scielo, Pubmed, Google and Google Scholar were used as search engines for scientific information. The search strategy included the following terms as keywords: Moringa oleifera, nutrition, beneficial effects. Review articles, research articles and Web pages that, in general, had been published for less than 10 years, in Spanish, Portuguese and English, and that made specific reference to the subject of study through the title, were evaluated. This allowed evaluating 68 articles, of which 36 were referenced. Conclusions: Moringa oleifera is a plant appreciated for its nutritional, nutraceutical and functional properties. It exerts a beneficial effect on people's health, fundamentally attributable to its antioxidant, insulin-sensitizing and immunomodulatory properties, with broad protective consequences on various organs and balance in the metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins. Likewise, it is proposed that it has anticancer, anti-inflammatory effects and antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral and anthelmintic activity, among other qualities. Hence, its use as a nutritional supplement and adjuvant in the prevention and treatment of multiple diseases(AU)

Natural plant extracts as an economical and ecofriendly alternative for harvesting microalgae.

The study investigated the ability of plant based natural coagulants from Azadirachta indica; Ficus indica; Moringa oleifera; Citrus sinensis; Punica granatum and Musa acuminata to harvest the microalgal biomass. Influence of eluent type (water and NaCl) and concentration (1-5 N) on coagulant extraction; coagulant dosage (1-5 g) and volume (20-100 ml); pH (6-12) and algal concentration (0.1-1 g l-1) on harvesting were analyzed. The results obtained were compared with alum and chitosan. FTIR and biochemical analysis confirmed the presence of bioactive compounds to aid coagulation. Biomass removal efficiency of 75.50% was obtained with M. oleifera extracts (8 mg ml-1) at pH 7.5-7.8, within 100 min. The harvesting efficiency increased to 95.76% when 4 mg ml-1M. oleifera extracts was combined with 0.75 mg ml-1 chitosan. The life cycle and cost analysis acknowledged the eco-friendly coagulants as strong alternative for conventional coagulants used in microalgal harvesting, thereby improvising the overall bioprocess.

Zero-valent silver nanoparticles attenuate Cd and Pb toxicities on Moringa oleifera via immobilization and induction of phytochemicals.

Potentials of zero-valent extract of cocoa pod mediated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for heavy metals (cadmium and lead) immobilization, attenuation of induced toxicities and influence on phytochemical contents in Moringa oleifera were investigated. M. oleifera seeds were planted in soil spiked and watered with water (control), 0.2 mg AgNPs, 0.5 mg CdCl2, 0.5 mg PbCl2, 0.2 mg AgNPs + 0.5 mg CdCl2, 0.2 mg AgNPs + 0.5 mg PbCl2, 0.2 mg AgNPs + 0.75 mg CdCl2 and 0.2 mg AgNPs + 0.75 mg PbCl2 per g soil designated as groups A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H respectively. Significant (p < 0.05) repression in shoot and root lengths, percentage germination, number of leaves, vigour and growth tolerance indices, relative water contents with attendant inhibition of photosynthetic pigments, total carotenoid contents, total flavonoid contents and total phenolic contents were obtained for M. oleifera planted on Cd and Pb spiked soil. There were marked decrease in ferric reducing, hydrogen peroxide scavenging and free radical scavenging activities with resultant significant increase in lipid peroxidation (MDA) levels for M. oleifera grown on Cd and Pb treated soil compared to control with Pb having more deleterious effects. Conversely, AgNPs significantly enhanced both physiological and biochemical parameters in M. oleifera over control and considerably attenuated suppressions of these parameters in M. oleifera induced by Cd and Pb. Results in this study have shown AgNPs as excellent immobilizing agents and outstanding modulators of heavy metal induced toxicities.

Moringa oleifera Ameliorates Histomorphological Changes Associated with Cuprizone Neurotoxicity in the Hippocampal Cornu ammonis (CA) 3 Region.

Cuprizone-induced neurotoxicity has severally been used to study demyelinating diseases like multiple sclerosis(MS), adversely affecting both the white and grey matters of the brain. Lesions have been observed in different regions ofthe brain including, corpus callosum, neocortex and the hippocampal formation. The current study explored the role ofMoringa oleifera leaf extract in restoring the resultant histomorphological changes in cuprizone-induced hippocampaldamage in Wistar rats. Twenty adult female Wistar rats with average weight of 163.74 ± 3.59 g were grouped into A: Control,administered with 1 ml of normal saline, B: received 0.4% cuprizone diet, C: received 1.875 mg/ml/day of Moringa extract,and D: received a combination of cuprizone and Moringa in similar doses. Administration was oral for 5 weeks. The weightsof animals were assessed during treatment, and at the termination of experiment, the rats were euthanized and the brainswere fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde. The tissue was processed for histological and histochemical examinations using theHaematoxylin and Eosin stain and cresyl fast violet stain to assess the general microarchitecture and neuronal cellsrespectively of hippocampal cornu ammonis (CA) 3 region. The body weight of cuprizone-treated rats was reduced and thiswas ameliorated significantly in animals that were co-administered with Moringa. Similarly, there were histologicalalterations in the CA3 region of the hippocampus with the presence of pyknotic pyramidal cells organized in clusters andCA3 cells with degenerative changes, but administration of Moringa led to a better organised and fairly intact histologicalappearance. Pharmaceutical development of Moringa oleifera into appropriate therapeutic formulations could offer somerelief to patients of demyelinating conditions that have clinical features of neurological deficits.

Physicochemical characterization and antioxidant activity of decolorized Moringa oleifera Lam leaf flour

BACKGROUND: Maringa oleifera leaves are rich in antioxidant substances; however, when lyophilized leaves were used in flour form in meat products, they presented no antioxidant effect and even accelerated the oxidation process of the product. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of chlorophyll extraction on the physicochemical composition and antioxidant activity of Moringa leaves. METHODS: Moringa leaves were dried and ground in order to obtain uniform flour. A treatment using chlorophyll extraction (decolorized) was tested versus a control treatment(non-decolorized) for proximate composition, instrumental color, and antioxidant activity using ANOVA followed by Tukey'stest. RESULTS: Higher crude fiber, ash, and protein contents were observed for decolorized flour (19.41 and 38.13%, 11.87 and14.02%, and 28.81 and 31.33%, respectively) when compared to those for the control. Chlorophyll extraction significantly affected (p< 0.05) the instrumental color of the leaves flour. The half maximal effective concentration (EC50) of both decolorized and control flour was 3.74 and 4.30 mg/L, respectively. The equivalent of antioxidant per gramof non-decolorized leaves was higher than that observed for the decolorized leaves (0.36 and 0.32 g/g DPPH, respectively). The antioxidant activity (AA%) of the extract from non-decolorized leaves was higher in the concentrations of 5 and 2.5 mg/0.1 mL, while the decolorized leaves was higher in the extract concentration 5 and 2 mg/0.1 ml. CONCLUSION: The decolorization process affected the chemical composition and color of Moringa oleifera leaves flours however did not improve its antioxidant activity

Oxidative DNA damage protective activity, antioxidant and anti-quorum sensing potentials of Moringa oleifera.

The aqueous extract of leaf (LE), fruit (FE) and seed (SE) of Moringa oleifera was assessed to examine the ability to inhibit the oxidative DNA damage, antioxidant and anti-quorum sensing (QS) potentials. It was found that these extracts could significantly inhibit the OH-dependent damage of pUC18 plasmid DNA and also inhibit synergistically with trolox, with an activity sequence of LE > FE > SE. HPLC and MS/MS analysis was carried out, which showed the presence of gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, ellagic acid, ferulic acid, kaempferol, quercetin and vanillin. The LE was with comparatively higher total phenolics content (105.04 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g), total flavonoids content (31.28 mg quercetin equivalents (QE)/g), and ascorbic acid content (106.95 mg/100 g) and showed better antioxidant activity (85.77%), anti-radical power (74.3), reducing power (1.1 ascorbic acid equivalents (ASE)/ml), inhibition of lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation, OH-induced deoxyribose degradation, and scavenging power of superoxide anion and nitric oxide radicals than did the FE, SE and standard alpha-tocopherol. Eventually, LE and FE were found to inhibit violacein production, a QS-regulated behavior in Chromobacterium violaceum 12472.