Abstract
There are many medicinal plants that have been used for thousands of years and due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, these plants can now be found in several healthcare products because of their therapeutic efficacy. Due to its rich medicinally imperative phytochemicals, Moringa oleifera has attracted several health industries. Besides, Moringa has been preferred as an affordable resource to fight malnutrition owing to its abundant nutritional properties. A large array of reports has repeatedly shown that Moringa can be used as anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant products. Though such references provided evidence for its potentials as a functional food, yet the basic questions on its mechanisms of action, especially on its medicinal properties remain to be unclear. This chapter summarizes the individual bioactive phytocompounds present in Moringa and their medicinal properties. It also highlights those further studies that need to investigate the likely mechanisms of actions of the Moringa phytochemicals that foster its informative applications in the prevention and management of chronic diseases.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alhakmani F, Kumar S, Khan SA (2013) Estimation of total phenolic content, in-vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of flowers of Moringa oleifera. Asian Pacific J Trop Biomed 3:623–627
Bennett RN, Mellon FA, Foidl N, Pratt JH, Dupont MS, Perkins L, Kroon PA (2003) Profiling glucosinolates and phenolics in vegetative and reproductive tissues of the multi-purpose trees Moringa oleifera L. (horseradish tree) and Moringa stenopetala L. J Agric Food Chem 51:3546–3553
Chumark P, Khunawat P, Sanvarinda Y, Phornchirasilp S, Morales NP, Phivthong-Ngam L, Ratanachamnong P, Srisawat S, Pongrapeeporn KU (2008) The in vitro and ex vivo antioxidant properties, hypolipidaemic and antiatherosclerotic activities of water extract of Moringa oleifera Lam Leaves. J Ethnopharmacol 116:439–446
Das N, Sikder K, Ghosh S, Fromenty B, Dey S (2012) Moringa oleifera Lam leaf extract prevents early liver injury and restores antioxidant status in mice fed with high-fat diet. Indian J Exp Biol 50:404–412
Eilert U, Wolters B, Nahrstedt A (1981) The antibiotic principle of seeds of Moringa oleifera and Moringa stenopetala. Planta Med 42:55–61
Fahey JW, Zalcmann AT, Talalay P (2001) The chemical diversity and distribution of glucosinolates and isothiocyanates among plants. Phytochemistry 56(1):5–51
Fahey JW, X Haristoy, PM Dolan, TW Kensler, I Scholtus, KK Stephenson, P Talalay, and A Lozniewski (2002) Sulforaphane inhibits extracellular, intracellular, and antibiotic-resistant strains of Helicobacter pylori and prevents benzo[a]pyrene-induced stomach tumors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99, pp 7610–7615
Fahey JW (2005) Moringa oleifera: a review of the medical evidence for its nutritional, therapeutic, and prophylactic properties. Part 1. Trees Life J 1(5):1–15
Faizi S, Siddiqui BS, Saleem R, Aftab K, Shaheen F, Gilani A-U-H (1998) Hypotensive constituents from the pods of Moringa oleifera. Planta Med 64:225–228
Farooq F, Rai M, Tiwari A, Khan AA, Farooq S (2012) Medicinal properties of Moringa oleifera: An overview of promising healer. J Med Plants Res 6(27):4368–4374
Ghasi S, Nwobodo E, Ofili JO (2000) Hypocholesterolemic effects of crude extract of leaf of Moringa oleifera Lamin high-fat diet fed wistar rats. J Ethnopharmacol 69:21–25
Glover-Amengor M, Aryeetey R, Afari E, Nyarko A (2017) Micronutrient compositionand acceptability of Moringa oleifera leaf-fortified dishes by children in Ada-East district, Ghana. Food Sci Nutrit 5:317–323
Gopalakrishnan L, Doriya K, Kumar DS (2016) Moringa oleifera: a review on nutritive importance and its medicinal application. Food Sci Human Wellness 5(2):49–56
Gupta S, Hemlata H, Tejavath K (2020) Synthesis, characterization and comparative anticancer potential of phytosynthesized mono and bimetallic nanoparticles using Moringa oleifera aqueous leaf extract. Beilstein Arch 1:95
Jain PG, Patil SD, Haswani NG, Girase MV, Surana SJ (2010) Hypolipidemic activity of Moringa oleifera Lam, Moringaceae, on high fat diet induced hyperlipidemia in albino rats. Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia 20:969–973
Jaiswal D, Kumar Rai P, Kumar A, Mehta S, Watal G (2009) Effect of Moringa oleifera Lam. Leaves aqueous extract therapy on hyperglycemic rats. J Ethnopharmacol 123(3):392–396
Kushwaha S, Chawla P, Kochhar A (2014) Effect of supplementation of drumstick (Moringa oleifera) and amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) leaves powder on antioxidant profile and oxidative status among postmenopausal women. J Food Sci Technol 51:3464–3469
Leone A, Spada A, Battezzati A, Schiraldi A, Aristil J, Bertoli S (2015) Cultivation, genetic, ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry and pharmacology of Moringa oleifera leaves: an overview. Int J Mol Sci 16:12791–12835
Ma ZF, Ahmad J, Zhang H, Khan I, Muhammad S (2020) Evaluation of phytochemical and medicinal properties of Moringa (Moringa oleifera) as a potential functional food. South African J Botany 129:40–46
Maldini M, Maksoud SA, Natella F, Montoro P, Petretto GL, Foddai M, De Nicola GR, Chessa M, Pintore G (2014) Moringa oleifera: study of phenolics and glucosinolates by mass spectrometry. J Mass Spectrom 49:900–910
Mehwish HM, Riaz Rajoka MS, **ong Y, ZhengK, **ao H, An** T,… & He Z (2020) Moringa oleifera–a functional food and its potential immunomodulatory effects. Food Rev Int, 1–20
Meireles D, Gomes J, Lopes L, Hinzmann M, Machado J (2020) A review of properties, nutritional and pharmaceutical applications of Moringa oleifera: integrative approach on conventional and traditional Asian medicine. Adv Tradit Med, 1–21
Mohammed S, Manan FA (2015) Analysis of total phenolics, tannins and flavonoids from Moringa oleifera seed extract. J Chem Pharmaceut Res 7:135–137
Moyo B, Oyedemi S, Masika PJ, Muchenje V (2012) Polyphenolic content and antioxidant properties of Moringa oleifera leaf extracts and enzymatic activity of liver from goats supplemented with Moringa oleifera leaves/sunflower seed cake. Meat Sci 91:441–447
Muangnoi C, Chingsuwanrote P, Praengamthanachoti P, Svasti S, Tuntipopipat S (2012) Moringa oleifera pod inhibits inflammatory mediator production by lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cell lines. Inflammation 35:445–455
Muhammad HI, Asmawi MZ, Khan NAK (2016) A review on promising phytochemical, nutritional and glycemic control studies on Moringa oleifera Lam in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Asian Pacific J Tropical Biomed 6:896–902
Okumu MO, Ochola FO, Mbaria JM, Kanja LW, Gakuya DW, Kinyua AW, Okumu PO, Kiama SG (2017) Mitigative effects of Moringa oleifera against liver injury induced by artesunate-amodiaquine antimalarial combination in wistar rats. Clinical Phytoscience 3:18
Padayachee B, Baijnath H (2020) An updated comprehensive review of the medicinal, phytochemical and pharmacological properties of Moringa oleifera. South African J Botany 129:304–316
Pari L, Kumar NA (2002) Hepatoprotective activity of Moringa oleifera on antitubercular drug-induced liver damage in rats. J Med Food 5:171–177
Sahakitpichan P, Mahidol C, Disadee W, Ruchirawat S, Kanchanapoom T (2011) Unusual glycosides of pyrrole alkaloid and 4′-hydroxyphenylethanamide from leaves of Moringa oleifera. Phytochemistry 72:791–795
Saini RK, Sivanesan I, Keum Y-S (2016) Phytochemicals of Moringa oleifera: a review of their nutritional, therapeutic and industrial significance. 3 Biotechnology 6:203
Sodvadiya M, Patel H, Mishra A, Nair S (2020) Emerging insights into anticancer chemopreventive activities of Nutraceutical Moringa oleifera: molecular mechanisms, signal transduction and in vivo efficacy. Curr Pharmacol Reports, 1–14
Sudha P, Asdaq SM, Dhamingi SS, Chandrakala GK (2010) Immunomodulatory activity of methanolic leaf extract of Moringa oleifera in animals. Indian J Physiol Pharmacol 54(2):133–140
Szlachetka K, Kut P, Stępień A (2020) Cytotoxic and anticancer activity of Moringa oleifera. Europ J Clin Exp Med 18(3):214–220
Talalay P, Talalay P (2001) The importance of using scientific principles in the development of medicinal agents from plants. Acad Med 76(3):238–247
Vats S, Gupta T (2017) Evaluation of bioactive compounds and antioxidant potential of hydroethanolic extract of Moringa oleifera Lam from Rajasthan, India. Physiol Molec Biol Plants 23:239–248
Verma AR, Vijayakumar M, Mathela CS, Rao CV (2009) In vitro and in vivo antioxidant properties of different fractions of Moringa oleifera leaves. Food Chem Toxicol 47:2196–2201
Waterman C, Rojas-Silva P, Tumer TB, Kuhn P, Richard AJ, Wicks S, Stephens JM, Wang Z, Mynatt R, Cefalu W, Raskin I (2015) Isothiocyanate-rich Moringa oleifera extract reduces weight gain, insulin resistance, and hepatic gluconeogenesis in mice. Molecular Nutr Food Res 59:1013–1024
William F, Lakshminarayanan S, Chegu H (1993) Effect of some Indian vegetables on the glucose and insulin response in diabetic subjects. Int J Food Sci Nutr 44(5):191–196
Yan G, Li** S, Yongliang Z (2020) UPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS2 analysis of Moringa oleifera leaf extract and its antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities. Nat Prod Res 34(14):2090–2094
Zainab B, Ayaz Z, Alwahibi MS, Khan S, Rizwana H, Soliman DW, … Abbasi AM (2020) In-silico elucidation of Moringa oleifera phytochemicals against diabetes mellitus. Saudi J Biol Sci 27(9):2299–2307
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Manavalan, N., Boopathi, N.M., Raveendran, M. (2021). Medicinal and Therapeutic Properties of Moringa. In: Boopathi, N.M., Raveendran, M., Kole, C. (eds) The Moringa Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80956-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80956-0_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-80955-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-80956-0
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)