ALENCAR, M. C. B.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/1917515245703428; ALENCAR, Maria Carmem Batista de.
Resumo:
Moringa oleifera is universally referred to as the miracle plant or the tree of life, being a plant
rich in nutrients, containing phenolic compounds, fatty acids, carbohydrates, fiber, minerals,
amino acids, vitamins and functional peptides. As its seeds are often referred to as waste, their
use tends to be considered a benefit. Due to the growing trend of replacing fats of animal origin
with fats of vegetable origin, some industries are returning to the use of natural raw materials
for oil production, such as moringa seed, with the aim of obtaining an alternative oil and good
quality. Thus, the objective of the present study was to extract moringa seed oil, evaluating its
rheological behavior and characterizing its physical-chemical and bioactive parameters.
Initially, a kinetic study of moringa seeds was carried out at 40, 50, 60 and 70°C in a convective
dryer in order to evaluate the adjustment of mathematical models and thermodynamic
properties. After obtaining the 4 flours at 40, 50, 60 and 70°C, the moringa seed oil was
extracted by cold pressing, evaluating the acidity index, peroxide, iodine and saponification
properties, in addition to determining the bioactive compounds. (phenolics, tannins,
anthocyanins, flavonoids and carotenoids). The study of rheological behavior was also carried
out, using kinematic viscosity. The Midilli model was the one that best adjusted the drying
kinetics of moringa seeds. Drying presented an activation energy of 33.093kJmol–1. The
average yield of moringa seed oils obtained was 22.45%. The content of tannins, phenolic
compounds and carotenoids (averages of the four temperatures of 5.2mg/100g; 112.87mg/100g;
0.599mg/100g, respectively) observed in the oils did not show a significant difference to the
established confidence level, however, In the levels of flavonoids and anthocyanins, a reduction
in the content of these compounds was observed as the drying temperature was increased. The
kinematic viscosity obtained in this study was on average 44.99 mm2s-1, making it possible to
observe that there was no statistically significant difference between the samples, leading to the
conclusion that this pre-process did not influence the viscosity found in the analyzes of moringa
seed oil.