article · Food Production Processing and Nutrition
Moringa oleifera is valued globally, but its nutritional profile remains little known among communities in Botswana. An evaluation of dried leaf powder gathered from domestic trees across six households in Gaborone determined proximate composition and mineral concentrations. The leaves exhibited high nutritional density, averaging 27.1 percent protein and 7.34 percent ash, alongside 46.5 percent carbohydrates, 9.1 percent fibre, 7.78 percent fat, and 6.93 percent moisture. Mineral testing recorded substantial amounts of calcium at 520 milligrams per 100 grams, magnesium at 82.6 milligrams per 100 grams, and iron at 7.7 milligrams per 100 grams, with smaller quantities of sodium, zinc, aluminium, manganese, and chromium. Statistically significant variations in moisture, fat, protein, and ash occurred between household samples. These compositional variations indicate possible genetic differences among local trees, warranting further investigation while highlighting the potential of the leaves as dietary protein and mineral supplements.
Moringa offers an accessible source of vital nutrients that remains underutilised in Botswana. Documenting the protein and mineral content of backyard trees confirms that local leaves provide substantial nutrition. This evidence can support initiatives to address dietary deficiencies and encourage communities to incorporate locally grown Moringa into everyday meals as an affordable, nutritious vegetable or dietary supplement.
This research is at an early stage, establishing basic nutritional data from domestic trees. The findings indicate potential for food producers or nutrition programmes to process Moringa leaves into mineral and protein dietary supplements or dried food products. Realising this potential will require further verification of genotypic variations, alongside systematic cultivation and processing trials, before market-ready products can be introduced.
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Abstract Although Moringa is an important vegetable crop elsewhere, its nutritional and non-food uses are not widely known in Botswana community. This study was conducted to determine the chemical composition and mineral contents of leaves of Moringa oleifera trees grown in Gaborone, Botswana. The leaf samples were collected from Moringa trees grown in the backyards of six different households in Gaborone city. They were dried separately at 55 ºC for 24 h and then ground to obtain a powder for analysis. The data on the proximate composition of the Moringa samples were subjected to Analysis of Variance to determine statistical differences among the mean values. The overall mean values of moisture, fat, protein, ash, fiber and total available carbohydrates of the leaves were 6.93 ± 0.16, 7.78 ± 0.13, 27.1 ± 0.43, 7.34 ± 0.31, 9.1 ± 1 and 46.5 ± 3%, respectively. The Moringa leaves contained average values of 520 ± 96.0, 7.7 ± 1.3, 30.1 ± 15.5, 0.8 ± 0.1, 82.6 ± 6.4, 1.7 ± 0.2, 1.6 ± 0.2 and 0.02 ± 0.00 mg/100g of Calcium, Iron, Sodium, Zinc, Magnesium, Aluminum, Manganese and Chromium, respectively. Significant differences were observed for moisture, fat, protein and ash contents among the six Moringa samples. The results showed that the leaves are rich in nutrients, particularly with high amounts of protein and ash. This suggests that Moringa leaf could serve as an important protein and mineral supplement in the diet and can be consumed as a vegetable in Botswana. The difference in composition observed between the Moringa leaf samples suggests a possible genotypic difference between the Moringa trees used in this experiment. Thus, there is a need for further study to verify this. Graphical Abstract
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DOI: 10.1186/s43014-023-00183-8
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