Amino acid components and nutritional value in Moringa oleifera Lam. tea

ObjectiveThe amino acids composition and nutritional value of Moringa oleifera Lam. tea were analyzed to provide basic nutritional data for its industrial development. MethodHydrolytic amino acids of M. oleifera Lam. tea, Mengxiushan green tea, Dashu tea and Dabanzhang tea were measured and analyzed by Biochrom30+ automatic amino acid analyzer, then the nutritional value of the four teas was evaluated with amino acid scoring method. ResultM. oleifera Lam. tea contained 17 kinds of amino acids with total of 434.90 mg/g,which was higher than those of the other three tradi-tional teas. Among them, seven were essential amino acids(EAA) with total of 162.80 mg/g, two were delicious amino acid(aspartic acid and glutamic acid) with total of 115.60 mg/g. The ratio of essential amino acid to total amino acid (EAA/TAA)was 37.43%, ratio of essential amino acid to nonessential amino acid(EAA/NEAA) was 59.83%. Score of ratio coefficient of amino acid(SRC) of the four teas were ranked as follows: M. oleifera Lam. tea(88.05)>Dashu tea (81.07)>Mengxiushan green tea(75.63)>Dabanzhang tea(67.14). The first limiting amino acid for the four teas was me-thionine+cystine, the second limiting amino acid for M. oleifera Lam. tea was lysine. ConclusionM. oleifera Lam. tea contains rich amino acids and high contents, the nutritional value is higher than the traditional teas and balanced. There-fore, it can be developed as a new tea product.