Vitamin C (L-ascorbic Acid) Content in Different Parts of Moringa oleifera Grown in Bangladesh

Vitamin C is a water soluble organic compound that participates in many biological processes. The objective of the present research is to evaluate the vitamin C contents in different parts of Moringa oleifera e.g. tender and matured leaves, flowers and pods grown in Bangladesh. Vitamin C content in fresh samples of six different M. olifera plants were determined by the HPLC method. Vitamin C content in the tender leaves of six M. olifera was found to be 62.66 to 143.587 mg/100 g, matured leaves contained 51.226 to 150.157 mg/100 g, flower showed 77.502 to 224.672 mg/100 g whereas four weeks aged pods were found to contain vitamin C 3.96 to 8.27 mg/100 g. In this study the vitamin C content in M. oleifera flowers was found to be in highest amount and the pods contained the lowest amount of vitamin C compared to the other plant parts. On the other hand vitamin C content in matured leaves was observed to be present in higher amount than the tender leaves.

Aims: The present study investigates the vitamin C content in different parts of Moringa oleifera grown in Bangladesh. The main object of this work was to see the level of vitamin C content in different parts of the study plant like leaves, flowers and pods in different Moringa tree.

Methodology: Vitamin C content was determined quantitatively by HPLC.

Results: Vitamin C content in the six M. oleifera plants was found to be 62.66 to 143.587 mg/100 g for tender leaves, 51.226 to 150.157 mg/100 g for matured leaves, 77.502 to 224.672 mg/100 g for flowers and 3.96 to 8.27 mg/100 g for four weeks aged pods.

Conclusion: It can be said that different parts of M. oleifera plants grown in Bangladesh are good sources of the vitamin C.