Efeito da temperatura de secagem na extração de óleo das sementes de moringa (Moringa oleífera): caracterização físico-química, bioativa e reológica.

Abstract

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.