Nutritional, antioxidants and protein profiling of leaves of Moringa oleifera germplasm

• Every part of Moringa oleifera is valuable for food and enriched with nutrients, minerals, antioxidants, proteins, and phenols. • Thirty four germplasm are profiled for protein, antioxidants and nutrient content in leaves. • PCA using the fifteen nutritional traits of thirty-four accessions of M. oleifera indicated that 74. 70 % variability was accounted for the first six principal components (PCs) with eigenvalues ≥1. • Protein content was significantly and highly correlated with nitrogen content in leaves (r = +1. 0). • High magnitude and significant correlation were found between FRAP and DPPH (r = +0. 9). • The thirty-four germplasm were grouped in five main clusters and cluster V had maximum mean values for iron, zinc, manganese, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, nitrogen, potassium, protein, total phenols, DPPH and FRAP. This study aimed to select elite germplasm based on nutritional, antioxidants and protein profiling of leaves of Moringa oleifera germplasm. Principal components analysis (PCA) using the fifteen nutritional traits of thirty-four accessions of M. oleifera indicated that 74. 70 % variability was accounted for the first six principal components (PCs) with eigenvalues ≥1. The first principal component (PC1) had an eigenvalue of 3. 6 and explained 23. 90 % of the total variation. Nitrogen, protein, magnesium, iron, zinc, calcium and potassium had high positive eigenvectors in PC1. The second component (PC2) explained 15. 27 % of the total variance with an eigen value of 2. 29 and positively correlated to copper, calcium, phosphorus and total phenols. Protein content was significantly and highly correlated with nitrogen content in leaves (r = +1. 0). High magnitude and significant correlation were found between FRAP and DPPH (r = +0. 9). The thirty-four germplasm were investigated in this study on quality parameters at ICAR-Central Horticultural Experiment Station, Godhra, Gujarat, India and grouped in five main clusters. Distance estimates based on the fifteen qualitative traits ranged from 2734. 15 to 3868. 43. The cluster V had maximum mean values for nutrients (mg/100 g dw) iron (81. 76), zinc (7. 66), manganese (27. 13), calcium (4470. 58), magnesium (1068. 28), sulfur (3758. 68), nitrogen (4615. 84), potassium (1558. 51), protein (29. 40 g/100 g), total phenols (900. 21 mg GAE/100 g fw), DPPH (31. 17 µmol (TE) /g fw) and FRAP (50. 42 µmol (TE) /g fw). The germplasm CHES D₄0 and CHES D₄5 (cluster V) could be utilized for further exploration based on their nutritional, antioxidants and protein content and for conservation of nutritionally superior germplasm.