Journal of Applied and Natural Science 10(1): 287 - 295 (2018) Effect of extraction methods on physicochemical, nutritional, antinutritional, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of Moringa ( Moringa oleifera Lam.) seed kernel oil B. L. Dinesha 1* , Udaykumar Nidoni 1 , C. T. Ramachandra 2 , Nagaraj Naik 1 and K. B. Sankalpa 1 1 Department of Processing and Food Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering, University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur- 584104(Karnataka), INDIA 2 Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru-560 065 (Karnataka), INDIA *Corresponding author. E- mail: dinirbdgtc@gmail.com Received: October 1, 2017; Revised received: October 10, 2017; Accepted: February 2, 2018 Abstract: The effect of three different extraction methods, namely supercritical CO 2 , soxhlet and solvent methods on the yield, efficiency, physico-chemical properties, nutritional, anti-nutritional composition, antimicrobial and anti- oxidant activities of moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) seed kernel oil was investigated in this study. Oil extraction for SC-CO 2 were 37.76 g/100g and 98.43%, observed to be higher than those of soxhlet extraction (29.12 g/100g and 76.29%), and significantly lower than solvent extraction (22.12 g/100g and 57.99%). The physico-chemical composi- tion of the oils showed considerable variation among the extraction methods. The SC-CO 2 extracted oil was found to be of superior quality, showing negligible thermal degradation and exhibited significantly (p<0.01) higher nutritional and antioxidant activity and lower anti-nutritional composition than the soxhlet and solvent extracted oils. Oils pro- duced by SC-CO 2 and soxhlet extraction methods had antimicrobial activities higher than solvent extracted oil. SC- CO 2 extracted oil was found to have maximum number of bioactive compounds (14 compounds) followed by solvent (8 compounds) and soxhlet (4 compounds) extracted oil. The results of the study demonstrated that SC-CO 2 would be a promising process for the extraction of moringa seed kernel oil of premium quality. Keywords: Bioactive compounds, Essential oil, Extraction, Moringa seeds, SC-CO 2 INTRODUCTION Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) is generally known to the age-old world, but only currently it has been found again as a multipurpose tree with an awesome variety of potential uses. Moringa owned to the family “Moringaceae” with genus “Moringa Adans” and spe- cies “M. oleifera Lam”. This species originally comes from North India but now has spread all over the globe in the tropics and subtropics (Enwa et al., 2013). In some parts of the world, M. oleifera is called to as the Drumstick tree or the Horse radish tree, Kelor, Maran- go, Mlonge, Moonga, Mulangay, Nebeday, Saijhan, Sajna or Ben oil tree (Prabhu et al., 2011). Moringa is an excellent source of nutritional elements reported by Bureau of Plant Industry. Nearly every part of the Moringa plant (leaves, flowers, seeds, roots and bark) can be used as food, medicinal and therapeu- tic purposes. The seeds can be eaten as such green and roasted; powdered and soaked seeds are used for tea as well as in curries (Anwar et al., 2006). The seeds have powerful coagulative and anti-microbial properties on pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus faecalis, Salmonella typhi and Shigella dysenteriae (Oluduro et al., 2010). Important bioactive compounds present in the moringa seeds have been used for anti-microbial, anti- genotoxic, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumour promot- ing activities (Prabhu et al., 2011). Excellent source of tocopherols present in the Moringa seed oil, which is considered as the equivalent to olive oil in terms of its chemical properties. It can also be used for edible pur- pose, rheumatism and gout, purification of blood and enhancing cardiac function (Middleton et al., 2000). Ben oil is another name for Moringa seed kernel oil, is more stable than canola oil, soybean oil, and palm oil when used for frying of foods (Abdulkarim et al., 2005). Ben oil is blended with sunflower oil and soy- bean oil enhances the oxidative stability of the mixture (Mani et al., 2007). Comparing the physico-chemical properties, nutritional and antinutritional composition, moringa seed oil is contemplate alternative to olive oil and may be used for human consumption (Nguyen et al., 2011). Moringa seed kernel oil is conventionally produced by hydro and steam distillation and to lower extent by ISSN : 0974-9411 (Print), 2231-5209 (Online) | journals.ansfoundation.org This work is licensed under Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). © 2018: Author (s). Publishing rights @ ANSF.