International Journal of Agricultural Science and Research (IJASR) ISSN 2250-0057 Vol. 3 Issue 2, Jun 2013, 67-70 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd. DETERMINATION AND COMPARISION OF VITAMINC CONTENT FROM MORINGA OLEIFERA BY DIFFERENT METHODS NIDHI SANKHYAN 1 , ANSHUL SHARMA 2 , CHANDRIKA ATTRI SETH 3 , ANJALI CHAUHAN 4 & SAURABH KULSHRESTHA 5 1,2,3,5 Faculty of Biotechnology, Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India 4 Department of Basic Sciences (Microbiology Section), Dr. Y. S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India ABSTRACT Moringa oleifera is a perfect example of multipurpose tree. Moringa is an important food commodity which has had attention as natural nutrition of the tropics. Moringa contains vitamin A, B, good source of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), palmitic acid, steric acid, calcium and potassium. Its seeds contain high quality edible oil (up to 40% by weight) and water soluble proteins that act as effective coagulants for water and wastewater treatment. Stem, fresh leaves and dried leaves samples of Moringa have been analyzed for ascorbic acid content (Vitamin C) using titration, enzymatic and HPLC methods. Fresh leaves of Moringa were found to be rich source of Vitamin C when compared with lemon and mosambi. Fresh leaves of Moringa was found to contain ~0.82mg/g Vitamin C which is roughly 2-4 times higher than that of from known sources of Vitamin C viz. lemon and mosambi. KEYWORDS: Moringa Oleifera, Vitamin C, Quantification, Titration, Spectrophotometer, HPLC Abbreviations: mg- Milligram, US- United States, HPLC - High Performance Liquid Chromatography, g- Grams, Vit C- Vitamin C INTRODUCTION Moringa oleifera L. is a tropical plant belonging to one of the 14 species of family moringaceae (Iqbal and Bhanger, 2006). The tree has its origin from Agra and Oudh in northern eastern region of India, in south of Himalayas and is now cultivated across whole of tropical belt (Mughal et al., 1999). It is referred by many names such as drumstick tree, horseradish tree, never die tree and miracle tree (Ramachandran et al., 1980). Moringa has been reported to provide human, livestock and many crop nutritional benefits (Fuglie, 2001). Different parts of Moringa plant have a number of medicinal properties which have been recognized by both Ayurvedic and Unani systems of medicines (Mughal et al., 1999). The leaves of M. oleifera have been reported to be a valuable source of both macro and micronutrients, rich source of β-carotene, protein, calcium, potassium and act as a good source of natural antioxidants such as ascorbic acid, flavonoides, phenolics and carotenoides (Fuglie 1999; Dillard and German 2000; Siddhuraju and Becker, 2003). The important components of Moringa like calcium and vitamin C found to be suitable for exploitation by many developing regions of world where malnutrition is a major concern, specially for the children (Fahey, 2005). Diet containing vitamins help to maintain health of humans. Vitamin C is essential micro-nutrient required for normal metabolic functions of human body (Jaffe 1984), supplied by fruits and vegetables. According to US standards