Proximate Composition, Antinutritional Content, Microbial Load, and Sensory Acceptability of Noodles Formulated from Moringa (Moringa oleifera) Leaf Powder and Wheat Flour Blend

Background. Noodle products are popular throughout the world, and they can be prepared from cereal like wheat, maize, and rice. Nowadays, healthy and nutritious product requirement has been increasing. Thus, research on the nutrition-rich but neglected crop is becoming visible nowadays to ensure global food security and to satisfy the nutritional need. Research indicated that moringa tree leaf powder has good nutritional value, but it is not yet customized and properly consumed. Method. The study is aimed at developing noodles from wheat flour and moringa leaf powder and evaluating proximate composition, antinutritional content (phytate and tannin), microbial load (total plate count and yeast and mold count), and sensory acceptability. The experiment contains four treatments and one control. The data from proximate composition, antinutritional content, microbial load, and sensory acceptability were subjected to SAS version 9 software. A complete randomized design was used to analyze the proximate composition, antinutritional content, and microbial load data, and a randomized complete block design was used to analyze the acceptability test. Result. The study revealed that in the noodles formulated from 80% durum wheat flour and 20% of moringa leaf powder, the ash, protein, fat, fiber, gross energy, phytate, and tannin content were increased by 39.39%, 10.86%, 153%, 42.2%, 3.43%, 39.83%, and 329.78%, respectively, as compared with noodles made from 100% durum wheat flour. However, moisture, total bacteria count, and yeast and mold count were decreased by 28.71%, 45.52%, and 55.93%, respectively. Similarly, the study also revealed that the acceptability test of noodles was decreased as moringa leaf powder concentration is increased. Conclusion. In conclusion, besides the good nutritional profile and antimicrobial capacity, moringa has antinutritional content and influences the sensory acceptability of products. Therefore, limiting the moringa leaf powder concentration is needed during the development of products using moringa leaf powder.