Moringa oleifera LAM.: A REVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND MANAGEMENT FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE NUTRITIONAL CONTENT OF LEAVES

Abstract

Background. Moringa oleifera Lam. It is a species native to India with an excellent capacity for acclimatization and is distributed in tropical, subtropical, and semi-arid climates. This plant is of economic importance due to its nutritional content and uses food, forage, medicinal and industrial. All plant parts can be used, but the leaves are characterized by their high nutritional content and low antinutritional compounds. Significant variation in the nutritional content of the leaves has been identified, and, therefore, a generalization or recommendation about their nutritional content is impossible. Objective. To identify the environmental and management factors that influence the nutritional content of M. oleifera leaves. Methodology. A bibliographic review on M. oleifera present in the databases of Scopus, NCBI, Science direct, and other repositories was carried out. The keywords for the search were: M. oleifera, chemical composition, nutritional content, environmental factors, phenology, agronomic management, postharvest management, type of dehydration, and methods of analysis. Results. The results obtained show that genetic, edaphoclimatic, agronomic, phenological factors, postharvest handling, type of dehydration, storage before and after dehydration, and type of analysis influence the nutritional content of moringa leaves. Implications. Identifying the factors and processes that affect the nutritional content allows a better understanding of the chemical content of moringa leaves under specific conditions. Conclusions. Fertilization is the factor that most influences the protein content when agronomic management is carried out. Temperature and dehydration type are the factors that showed the most significant influence on the decrease in the nutritional content of the leaves in postharvest management.