In vitro fermentation and production of methane and carbon dioxide from rations containing Moringa oleifera leave silage as a replacement of soybean meal: in vitro assessment.

Plant leaf meal of some forage trees such as Moringa oleifera has attracted an increasing interest as a good and cheap source of protein. The present in vitro experiment employed the in vitro wireless gas production (GP) technique to evaluate the inclusion of M. oleifera leaves ensiled for 45 days as a replacement for soybean meal in rations. A control basal ration was formulated to contain 17.5% soybean meal as a source of protein. Soybean meal in the control ration was replaced with silage (MOS) at increasing levels of 0 to 100%. Replacing soybean meal with MOS gradually increased (P < 0.001) GP kinetics (asymptotic GP, rate of GP, and lag time of GP). However, soybean meal replacement decreased (P < 0.001) asymptotic methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) productions, and rate of CH4 production and increased the lag time of CH4 and CO2 production. Gradual increases (P < 0.001) in the digestibility of dry matter, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber, ruminal bacteria count, fermentation pH, and the concentrations of ruminal total volatile fatty acids, acetate, and propionate were observed with rations containing MOS. Decreases in the digestibility of crude protein, ruminal protozoal count, and the concentrations of ruminal ammonia-N were observed with MOS rations. It is concluded soybean meal can be completely replaced by MOS with desirable effects on ruminal fermentation.

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.

Food safety assessment of an antifungal protein from Moringa oleifera seeds in an agricultural biotechnology perspective.

Mo-CBP3 is an antifungal protein produced by Moringa oleifera which has been investigated as potential candidate for developing transgenic crops. Before the use of novel proteins, food safety tests must be conducted. This work represents an early food safety assessment of Mo-CBP3, using the two-tiered approach proposed by ILSI. The history of safe use, mode of action and results for amino acid sequence homology using the full-length and short contiguous amino acids sequences indicate low risk associated to this protein. Mo-CBP3 isoforms presented a reasonable number of alignments (>35% identity) with allergens in a window of 80 amino acids. This protein was resistant to pepsin degradation up to 2 h, but it was susceptible to digestion using pancreatin. Many positive attributes were presented for Mo-CBP3. However, this protein showed high sequence homology with allergens and resistance to pepsin digestion that indicates that further hypothesis-based testing on its potential allergenicity must be done. Additionally, animal toxicity evaluations (e.g. acute and repeated dose oral exposure assays) must be performed to meet the mandatory requirements of several regulatory agencies. Finally, the approach adopted here exemplified the importance of performing an early risk assessment of candidate proteins for use in plant transformation programs.