Abstract
Objective: To prepare a more comprehensive nutrition, more balanced proportion of natural nutritional supplement tablets with Moringa oleifera leaves and spirulina the two nutrients which have complementary natural food ingredients. Method: On the basis of research M. oleifera leaves with spirulina nutrient composition was determined on M. oleifera leaves and spirulina ratio of raw materials, and the choice of microcrystalline cellulose, sodium salt of caboxy methyl cellulose(CMC),magnesium stearate excipient, through single factor and orthogonal experiment, selecting the best formula tablets prepared by powder direct compression technology, for preparation of M. oleifera and spirulina complex tablets. Results: The best ratio of raw material for the M. oleifera leaves powder: spirulina powder was 7:3, the best raw materials for the tablet formulation was 88.5%, 8.0% microcrystalline cellulose, CMC 2.0%, stearin magnesium 1.5%, the optimum parameters for the raw material crushing 200–300 mesh particle size, moisture content of 7%, tableting pressure 40 kN. Conclusion: Through formulation and process optimization, we can prepare more comprehensive and balanced nutrition M. oleifera and spirulina complex tablets, its sheet-shaped appearance, piece weight variation, hardness, friability, disintegration and other indicators have reached the appropriate quality requirements.
Keywords: Moringa oleifera, Spirulina, Nutrition tablets, Formula, Process optimization
1. Introduction
Moringa oleifera, Capparales moringa plant, native to India, also known as drumstick tree, is a perennial tropical deciduous tree. The seeds and leaves of these have rich nutrients; protein content of leaves reached 27%; minerals and vitamins contain many kinds and high content of nutrients, which is considered as one of the plants with the richest nutritional ingredient humans ever found (Liu and Li, 2002). Moringa is called a kind of magical healthy plant, which is rich in nutrients, and also contains Moringa polysaccharides, flavonoids, γ-amino butyric acid and other active ingredients, with good therapeutic care function; so it is known as the Magic Tree and Tree of Life.
Spirulina, class of prokaryotic microorganisms, cyanobacteria Oscillatoria algae division, is one of the oldest creatures on earth, is found on Earth the most balanced nutrition, the most abundant natural food. World Health Organization and the United Nations FAO recommended Spirulina as the twenty-first century best food and best of human health products (Huijuan and Guihua, 2005). Spirulina features nutrients is high in protein, low fat, low cholesterol, but also contains more γ-linolenic acid, vitamins, minerals and trace elements, and for the human body is very useful. Meanwhile phycocyanin, algae contain polysaccharides and other biologically active substances, and can improve immunity, has anti-cancer, effects.
Moringa and spirulina are extremely rich in nutritional values, and have certain health values of natural biological resources; our study found that the nutritional composition is complementary; if the moringa and spirulina are mixed by a certain scale to prepare a kind of complex tablets, their nutritional species are more comprehensive, with more balanced proportion of nutrients. At the same time based on environmental restrictions and climatic conditions, quality spirulina production is limited with higher prices, and moringa is adaptable in tropical and subtropical areas, with high biomass production, and the price is relatively low. By preparing complex nutritional tablets of M. oleifera and spirulina, the cost is relatively low and easy to promote, as these two high-value biological resources are better for human health services.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Biological materials
M. oleifera Lam.PKM-1: its fresh leaves are collected in characteristic biological resources engineering technology center planting base in dry-hot valley from Panzhihua city.
Spirulina platensis: produced in Chenghai lake of Lijiang in Yunnan.
2.1.2. The main instruments and reagents
Main instruments: constant temperature drying ovens, ultrafine grinding instrument, vibration screening machines, mixers, constant temperature and humidity chamber, electronic scales, tablet hardness measuring instrument, friability tester, intelligent disintegration tester and rotary tablet machines.
Reagents: microcrystalline cellulose (food grade), magnesium stearate (food grade), sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (food grade) and so on (Changfen and Guohua, 2004).
2.2. Methods
2.2.1. Production process
The Production process of M. oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets is shown as Fig. 1.
Figure 1.
The production process of Moringa oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets.
2.2.2. Process operation points
① After collecting Moringa fresh leaves, remove yellow leaves, rotten leaves, cut long petioles and place the leaf in 60 °C oven to dry for 8–12 h spare;
② Moringa dried leaves and spirulina should be crushed alone, make use of vibration screening machine for screening to get different sizes of raw materials, then mix according to the proportion;
③ Excipient has less ratio, in order to ensure uniform mixing, first take 15–20% of the raw materials to pre-mix with excipients for 5 min; After pre-mixing, place the remaining raw material mixture for 5 min after two time mixed processing, uniformity of the sample can be ensured.
2.2.3. Evaluation index of M. oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets
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(1)
Establishing evaluation criteria
Referring Pharmacopoeia (2010 edition) (State, 2010) and other relevant information, the article established M. oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablet evaluation index in terms of sheet-shaped appearance, piece weight variation, hardness, friability, disintegration time and other aspects (see Table 1).
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(2)
Evaluation method
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Sheet-shaped appearance. Take 20 samples on a clean white porcelain vessel, in diffuse daylight or artificial light similar to daylight, visual study its color and luster as well as state.
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Tablet weight difference. Take 20 samples, accurately weighed on the total weight, obtain average piece weight, then weigh and the weight of each piece precisely; compare each slice weight and the average tablet weight per piece; then calculate the relative average deviation.
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Hardness. Take 20 samples, measure hardness with hardness measuring instrument and achieve average value.
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Friability. Take 20 samples, use a hair dryer to blow off the powder, precisely weighing, set friability tester in cylinder and rotate 100 times. Take out, remove the powder with the same method, precisely weighing, statistics and analysis.
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Disintegration time. Take 20 samples and put into the smart disintegration instrument to observe and obtain disintegration, and calculate the average of disintegration time.
Table 1.
Moringa oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets evaluation index.
| Index and weight | First level | Second level | Third level | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Detection method | Weight | 0.8–1.0 * weight | 0.6–0.8 * weight | 0.4–0.6 * weight |
| Slice shape and appearance | Visual inspection | 30 points | Complete and clean, color uniformity, no mottle, no foreign matter | In order, color is not obvious, less clutter and foreign matter | Irregular edges, dull, with a clear clutter or foreign objects |
| Weighing difference | Electronic weighing scales calculate the relative average deviation | 10 points | less than 5% | 5–10% | >10% |
| Hardness | Tablet hardness measuring instrument | 20 points | 40–60 N | 15–40 N | <15 N |
| Friability | Friability tester | 20 points | Did not check the breaks, cracks and crushed pieces, weight more than 1% | Did not check the breaks, cracks and crushed pieces, weight more than 1% | Detect breaks, cracks and crushed piece |
| Disintegration time | Measured by intelligent disintegration instrument | 20 points | 6–10 min | 3–6 min | <3 min, >10 min |
2.2.4. Formulation of M. oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets
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(1)
Raw material ratio between Moringa leaf powder and spirulina powder
There are many reports on the nutrients of Moringa leaves and spirulina (Guoliang and Yin, 2012), the main nutrients of which are as shown in Table 2, according to the required daily nutrition standards proposed by International Union of Nutritional Sciences body in 2011, these indicators of human’s required daily intake amount are also shown in Table 2; through in-depth analysis and statistical calculation, the best raw material ratio of Moringa leaf powder and spirulina powder is received (Zhikun et al., 2007).
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(2)
Selection of excipients
Table 2.
Comparison of major nutrients between Moringa and spirulina (per 100 g).
| Component | Protein (g) | Dietary fiber (g) | Linolenic acid (mg) | Carotenoids (mg) | Dimension C (mg) | Dimension E (mg) | B | Biotin (μg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moringa leaf | 27.50 | 19.2 | 300 | 41.87 | 73.90 | 155.67 | 184.57 | 78.60 |
| Spirulina | 69.0 | 3 | 1500 | 170.0 | 8.80 | 12.00 | 60.00 | 25.00 |
| Ratio | 1:2.5 | 6.4:1 | 1:5 | 1:4.06 | 8.40:1 | 12.97:1 | 19.74:1 | 3.14:1 |
| ADI | 55–65 | 20–30 | 3000–4000 | 6–15 | 60–100 | 10–12 | 200–300 | 30–40 |
| Composition | P (mg) | Ca (mg) | K (mg) | Mg (mg) | Fe (mg) | Mn (mg) | Zn (mg) | Se (μg) |
| Moringa leaf | 280.80 | 2357.03 | 1759.37 | 395.03 | 13.54 | 64.32 | 2.78 | 13.10 |
| Spirulina | 1090.00 | 148.00 | 1600.00 | 270.00 | 38.00 | 2.44 | 4.82 | 10.0 |
| Ratio | 1:3.89 | 15.93:1 | 1.10:1 | 1.46:1 | 1:2.81 | 26.36:1 | 1:1.74 | 1.31:1 |
| ADI | 600–700 | 700–800 | 2000 | 315–360 | 10–15 | 3.5–4 | 12–15 | 50–100 |
The excipient is prepared as auxiliary raw material in addition to the main drug in tablets. The excipients have many kinds of species, generally having binders, lubricants, diluents, disintegrating agents and wetting agents. One can accord the different characteristics of raw materials and processing tablets to choose different accessories. In this study, the main choices are binder, disintegrator and lubricant in order to increase the pressure and flow of materials and disintegration of the tablets. Use Table 1 as evaluation criteria, on the basis of a lot of information (Shenghui et al., 2014), first select the sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%), microcrystalline cellulose (2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%) and magnesium stearate (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%) to do a single-factor test.
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(3)
Optimization of formulas
On the basis of examining single factors of excipients, design orthogonal optimization test and score according to Table 1 to determine the optimal formula composition using range analysis (Xuhua, 2012).
2.2.5. Production process optimization of M. oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets
By direct powder compression process, the raw material powder size directly affects the quality of the tablet. If powder particle size is large, tablets are prone to appear lobes, piebald, excessive hardness. With the powder particle size decreases, the passing rate of the tablet increase, but when size is too small, it’s easy to agglomerate when mixing to impact mixing effect for the high sticking probability when tableting. Experimental selected powder sizes are 40–80, 80–120, 120–200, 200–300, 300–500 for single factor experiment. Water content of the raw material powder also directly affects the quality of tableting. When water is too high, the material flow is poor, and easy to breed microbes, mildew, shortening shelf life; when the moisture is too little, tableting is easy to be loose and incomplete, and the hardness can’t meet the requirement, and tablet pass rate is significantly reduced. Use M. oleifera and Spirulina powder moisture content (4%, 6%, 8%, 10%, 12%) to do tableting single factor test, the water content of raw materials is controlled by using humidity chamber with a relative humidity adjusted and the drying time. Production pressure is vital for the molding and qualities of the tablets, and the experiment gradually increases the production of pressure (15, 20, 30, 40 kN), to examine the effect of tableting (Guanghong et al., 2011).
On the basis of the single-factor experiments, combined with previous recipe optimization findings, the study designed orthogonal optimization test and scored in Table 1, using range analysis to determine the optimum process parameters (Pengfei et al., 2010).
3. Results
3.1. Formulating research results of M. oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets
3.1.1. The best ratio of raw materials
According to literature reports, use the tablets of moringa or spirulina whose nutrients are not very complete, or some nutrition indicators are low, which cannot fully meet the requirements of balanced diet; through analysis, Nutritional ingredients of moringa and spirulina are highly complementary, producing composite tablet, which have more complete nutrition indicators. The content can meet or be near the range of needs. Through a comprehensive analysis of each index, we can determine the ratio of Moringa leaf powder and spirulina powder as 7:3. Nutrient composition ratio produced in the complex tablet is the most reasonable, while cost of preparation is relatively low.
3.1.2. Experimental result from formulation optimization
Single-factor test results show that the optimum amount of microcrystalline cellulose is 8%; optimum amount of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose is 2%; the optimum amount of magnesium stearate is 1.5%; in accordance with orthogonal table L9 (34) orthogonal experimental design, as shown in Table 3.
Table 3.
Formula of Moringa oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets L9 (34) factor level.
| Level | Factor |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A (Moringa oleifera and spirulina, g) | B (microcrystalline cellulose, g) | C (sodium carboxymethylcellulose, g) | D (magnesium stearate, g) | |
| 1 | 91.5 | 7 | 1.5 | 1.0 |
| 2 | 88.5 | 8 | 2 | 1.5 |
| 3 | 86.5 | 9 | 2.5 | 2.0 |
Formula of M. oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets’ orthogonal test results and data analysis are shown in Table 4. From Table 4, the order of factors affecting the product quality is: M. oleifera and spirulina powder > magnesium stearate > microcrystalline cellulose > sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. The best formula combination is A2B2C2D2. With this formula combination the study made three times parallel test, the average product composite score is 89.2, indicating that the combination is the best recipe combinations. The percentage content of each component is: M. oleifera and spirulina powder: microcrystalline cellulose: sodium carboxymethyl cellulose: Magnesium stearate is 88.5:8:2:1.5, which means that the prepared 100 g tablet contains moringa powder 61.95 g and spirulina powder is 26.55 g.
Table 4.
Formula of Moringa oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets L9(34) orthogonal test results and data analysis.
| Text number | Factor |
Score | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | C | D | ||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 80.6 |
| 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 88.2 |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 84.2 |
| 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 86.2 |
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 85.7 |
| 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 87.2 |
| 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 81.2 |
| 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 81.4 |
| 9 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 80.3 |
| K1 | 84.333 | 82.667 | 83.067 | 82.200 | |
| K2 | 86.367 | 85.100 | 84.900 | 85.533 | |
| K3 | 80.967 | 83.900 | 83.700 | 83.933 | |
| R | 5.400 | 2.433 | 1.833 | 3.333 | |
3.2. M. oleifera and spirulina production process optimization results complex nutrition tablets
Single factor experiment results showed that the raw material powder particle size is 200–300 mesh, material moisture content is 8%, tableting pressure should be 30 kN, as a reference in accordance with orthogonal table L9 (33) of orthogonal optimization tests, as shown in Table 5.
Table 5.
Production process parameters of Moringa oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets 9(33) factor level.
| Level | Factor |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| A (raw material particle size, order) | B (raw material moisture, %) | C (flaking pressure, kN) | |
| 1 | 120–200 | 7 | 20 |
| 2 | 200–300 | 8 | 30 |
| 3 | 300–500 | 9 | 40 |
Direct optimization of Moringa and spirulina powder complex nutritional tablets which prepared orthogonal test results and data analysis are shown in Table 6. From Table 6, the order of factors on the sensory quality is: moisture > tableting pressure > powder particle size, the best formula combination is A2B1C3, namely raw material particle size is 200–300 mesh; material moisture content is 7%, and tableting pressure is 40 kN. With this formula combination three times parallel test are conducted, and the average composite score is 96.2, indicating that the combination is the best process parameter.
Table 6.
Production process parameters of Moringa oleifera and spirulina complex nutritional tablets L9 (33) orthogonal test results and data analysis.
| Test number | A | B | C | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 93.2 |
| 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 88.6 |
| 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 89.2 |
| 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 94.5 |
| 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 94.8 |
| 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 86.2 |
| 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 93.2 |
| 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 88.4 |
| 9 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 91.2 |
| K1 | 90.333 | 93.633 | 89.267 | |
| K2 | 91.833 | 90.600 | 91.433 | |
| K3 | 90.933 | 88.867 | 92.400 | |
| R | 1.500 | 4.766 | 3.133 |
4. Conclusion and discussion
The results showed that through the optimization formula one can use the mixed raw materials of moringa leaves and spirulina to produce Moringa and spirulina powder complex nutritional tablets using direct powder compression process, in which the ratio of Moringa leaf powder and spirulina powder is 7:3, and the type and content of nutrients are the most balanced. By sheet-shaped appearance, tablet weight difference, hardness, friability, disintegration time five aspects as the evaluation criteria, and microcrystalline cellulose, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and magnesium stearate as excipients. By single factor text and orthogonal experiment, the ratio of raw materials is 88.5% (of which Moringa leaf powder is 61.95%, spirulina powder is 26.55%), microcrystalline cellulose content is 8%, and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose is 2%, while magnesium stearic content is 1.5%, achieving the most ideal tablet preparation. The study examined the influence on raw material particle size, moisture content of raw materials and the impact of tableting pressures, and the conclusion is that the best raw material particle size is 200–300 mesh, the best raw material moisture content is 7%, with the best tableting pressure 40 kN. The color of Moringa and spirulina complex nutritional tablets is green, bluish, complete and smooth, uniform color, no clutter, no foreign matter, tablet weight difference is less than 5%, and friability is less than 1 percent, hardness is above 40 N and the average disintegration time is 7.2 min, tablet pass rate is 96 percent. The study provides a scientific basis for the mass production of Moringa and spirulina complex nutritional tablets.
The produced Moringa and spirulina complex nutritional tablets are recommended to take 6–8 g a day, better than the single use effect on spirulina tablets or moringa sheet, which can help most people improve a more balanced nutrient intake and human health. When Moringa leaf powder and spirulina leaf powder has the ratio of 7:3, it’s mainly for group for adults aged at 18–55, the nutritional needs between the elders and minors may be inconsistent, and therefore you can adjust the recipe proportions for different groups during processing.
Using direct powder compression to prepare tablets has less nutrient loss, because the raw materials don’t go through heat treatment, but there may be existing losses. The actual losses still need further texting on the nutritional content of products, while the condition of products’ health and safety indicators and stability situation has yet to be carried out in the next step.
Acknowledgement
Fund Program: 2015 Science and Technology Project from the Education Department of Sichuan Province (No. 15ZB0416).
Footnotes
Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University.
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