Moringa oleifera – A Functional Food and Its Potential Immunomodulatory Effects

ABSTRACT

Moringa oleifera

(M.oleifera) as nutraceuticals and nutritional resources in human diets has gained attention in recent years, in part due to the extensive use of this plant in traditional foods and medicinal therapies in various regions of the world. Concurrently, the role of immune modulation in the treatment of several human diseases has received considerable attention. This paper mainly aims to summarize our current understanding of M. oleifera immunomodulatory potential and its possible mechanism of action. M. oleifera is considered as medication to combat numerous diseases. Collectively, the data suggest that M. oleifera comprises a diverse group of bioactive compounds which can be used as nutritional and therapeutic agents to regulate the host immune system, in turn helping to combat various disorders including cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. Also M.oleifera contributes toward the host health through restructuring the gut microbiota, which in turn helps to control various diseases such as inflammation and to enhance host immunity. Finally, it is concluded that the M.oleifera can be used as potential nutritional source to developed new functional food with ability to promote the host immune system. Overall, a huge gap in knowledge was apparent, suggesting that further in vitro and in vivo investigations are needed to document the immunomodulatory potential of M. oleifera supplemented functional foods.

KEYWORDS:

• M. oleifera
• bioactive compound
• immunomodulation
• functional food
• microbiota

Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the National Key R & D Program of China (No. 2017YFA053900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31670360), the Shenzhen Science and Technology Project (JCYJ20170818095732006), the Shenzhen strategic emerging industry development project funding (CXZZ20150601110000604, ZDSYS201506031617582, Shenfagai (2013) 180, KQCX2014052211150878, CXZZ20150529165110750, ZDSYS201506031617582). The authors are thankful to Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Xilli campus for providing the support during the study.

Disclosure statement

None of the authors declared a conflict of interest.

Author contribution

Qinchang Zhu and Zhendan He conceived and designed the research. Hafiza Mahreen Mehwish, Muhammad Shahid Riaz Rajoka, and Kai Zheng extracted and analyzed the data. Haitao Xiao helps in search strategies. Zhigang Liu, Yongai Xiong, and Tao Anjin draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Finally Zhendan He critically reviewed the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFA053900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31670360, 81973293 and U1702286), the Science and Technology Program of Guangdong Province (2017B030301016 and 2018A030313252), the Foundation Committee of basic and applied basic research of Guangdong Province (2019B1515120029), the Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province (A2018257), the Shenzhen Science and Technology Project (JCYJ20170818095732006, and JCYJ20190808122605563), the Shenzhen strategic emerging industry development project funding (ZDSYS201506031617582, KQCX2014052211150878, CXZZ20150529165110750), the Shenzhen Peacock Plan and the SZU Top Ranking Project (86000000210).