Moringa oleifera Seeds Characterization and Potential Uses as Food

Abstract

Despite the fact Moringa oleifera (MO)-based foods present a very good and nutritionally well-balanced composition, they face some issues related to seed bitterness, which is the most challenging barrier to consumer acceptance. Different processing methods were tested to produce MO toasted seeds, MO-based beverage, and yoghurt-like products which were chemically and rheologically analyzed. The protein content ranged from 3.68% in the beverage, to 14.73% in the yoghurt and 40.21% in MO toasted seeds. A totally debittered beverage could not be accomplished, but the MO yoghurt-like showed a very nice flavor. Nutrition claims for minerals in toasted seeds could be considered for magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper, zinc, and manganese, which confirms the M. oleifera seed richness in several minerals. The MO beverage presented less extended shear-thinning behavior (17.4 Pa·s) than commercial vegetable beverages and two pulse-based beverages developed in a previous study. The MO yoghurt-like product showed a gel structure similar to the dairy yoghurt, making it a promising new plant-based alternative. Further work must be performed in the future to debitter more efficiently the raw seeds to achieve a more pleasant MO-based beverage. The developed MO seed-based products may settle another font of high protein plant-based food.