To Analyze the Nutritional Value and Antimicrobial Potential of Moringa Oleifera The Miracle Tree Collected from Lower Himalayan Region

Abstract

newline vi newlineAbstract newlineActive metabolites from medicinal plants offer vast opportunities for new drug discoveries, whether as pure compounds or as crude form. Due to an increasing demand for chemical diversity in screening programs, seeking therapeutic drugs from natural products, mainly from edible plants, has grown throughout the world. Moringa oleifera (MO) has an impressive range of medicinal uses with high nutritional values. MO belonging to family Moringaceae, is a plant that grows in tropical and subtropical regions of the world and is widely cultivated throughout India. The nutritional and medicinal values are due to the presence of certain primary and secondary metabolites synthesized by the plant. The present investigation aimed to evaluate the nutritional value and antimicrobial potential of MO collected from the lower Himalayan ecotype. The antimicrobial activity of different parts of MO were determined against various pathogens using well diffusion method. Different parts of Moringa showed remarkable activity against all pathogenic strains. The phytochemical screening of samples revealed the presence of different secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, saponins and tannins. Ethanolic extract of Moringa leaves was then fractionated based on the presence/absence of alkaloids. Both non-alkaloidal fractions (chloroform and ethyl acetate) showed significant activity against pathogenic E. coli. Bioactive molecules present in the non-alkaloidal fractions of ethanolic leaf extract were identified through GC-MS analysis and then identified phytocompounds were analyzed through docking studies to evaluate their affinity for target proteins i.e Thymidylate Synthase (1HVY) and Amp-C beta-lactamase (1FSY). Five compounds viz. Dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane; Hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester; 2,6-Bis(1,1-dimethylethyl)phenol; Fluoranthene and Chlorodimethylethylsilane showed the maximum interaction with 1HVY with highest docking score of - 231.65Kcal/mol, -220.78Kcal/mol, -178.51Kcal/mol, -173.10Kcal/mol and -129.18Kcal/mol respectively and three compounds viz. Hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester; Dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane and Fluoranthene showed the maximum interaction with 1FSY with highest docking score of -153.84Kcal/mol, -137.23Kcal/mol and -54.34Kcal/mol respectively. newlinePresent study also discusses isolation and structural elucidation of a phenolic antioxidant (ferulic acid) from the crude ethanolic extract of M. oleifera leaves. Phenolic compound was isolated by preparative TLC having a Rf value of 0.51, and further characterization was accomplished using FT-IR, LC-MS, and 1H NMR analysis. Molar mass observed by LC-MS newlinevii newlineanalysis was 195.0, and the 1H NMR spectrum of the isolated phenolic compound revealed the presence of protons in the compound, which were well correlated with ferulic acid. In order to confirm that Moringa leaves contains minerals, vitamins and essential amino acids. Dried Moringa leaves were assessed for presence of different nutrients. Present finding proved that M. oleifera is an excellent plant candidate to be used for community health enhancement and can have tremendous pharmacological drug developmental capabilities. newlineKeywords: Moringa oleifera, LC-MS, NMR, TLC, Phytochemical, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant.