Investigation of endophytic fungi in Moringa oleifera Lam. and determination of the phytochemical and proximate contents of its leaves and seeds

Abstract

Moringa oleifera Lam. is embedded with huge nutritional values hence, it is being utilized in folklore medicine for various therapeutic and pharmacological applications. This study was conducted to identify the endophytic fungi associated with commercial dried and fresh leaves and seeds of Moringa oleifera. The phytochemical and proximate contents of the ethylacetate extracts of the samples were also determined. Surface sterilization procedures were carried out to isolate fungi while identification was by standard identification manuals. The phytochemical content analysis was by standard protocols while the proximate content analysis was done using AOAC protocols. Endophytic fungi isolated are from genus; Aspergillus, Rhizopus, Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, Saccharomyces, Xylaria, Mucor, Nigrospora, Trichoderma, Alternaria, Penicillium and Macrophomina. From the qualitative analysis, flavonoid, tannin, steroid, alkaloid, terpenoids and cardiac glycoside were observed in all samples while saponin and phlobatannins were not detected in any sample. Reducing power was only observed in the fresh leaves and seeds samples. In quantitative analysis, fresh leaves showed the highest quantity of flavonoids (55.86±0.36 mg/g) while the fresh seed had highest quantity of cardiac glucosides, tannin and terpenoids. The dried leaves showed highest quantity of steroid and alkaloids. In the proximate analysis, the dried leaves had higher carbohydrate and crude fibre of 39.06±0.27 % and 14.32±0.01 % respectively. Moisture content was highest in the fresh leaves sample (20.26±0.06 %). Dried branded seed had the highest ash, crude lipid and crude protein contents. This study has shown that the leaves and seeds of M. oleifera are domains of diversity of endophytic fungi.