Impact of post harvest treatment on antioxidant activity and phenolic profile of Moringa oleifera lam leaves

Abstract Moringa oleifera leaves are an important source of dietary phytochemicals, such as flavonoids with high antioxidant activity (AOA). These components however influenced by the post-harvest treatments applied well processing conditions. Hence, it is crucial to determine most appropriate treatment that preserves or enhances AOA. To this effect influence steam blanching, fermentation / oxidation, oven drying and roasting fresh on their AOA was investigated. Processing conditions time temperature for each were optimised using response surface methodology. The different at optimal phenolic profile compared. Roasting achieved significant ( p < 0.05) improvement in phenolics (43%) (22–31%), which accompanied formation 2 new compounds, quercetin-3-O-acetylglucoside Quercetine-3-O-rhamnoside. Steam blanching had deleterious (− 31%) Post-harvest qualitatively quantitatively affect phytochemical leaves. Graphical abstract