Asian Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences (ISSN: 2321 – 1571) Volume 05 – Issue 03, June 2017 Asian Online Journals (www.ajouronline.com ) 144 Study of Anti-nutritional Compounds, Antioxidant Activity and Fatty Acid Composition of Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) Foliage Nasrin Sultana 1* , Abd Razak Alimon 2 , Khan shahidul Huque 1 , Awis Qurni Sazili 2 , Halimatun Yaakub, S. Mohammad Jahangir Hussain 1 and Nani Gopal Das 1 1 Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh 2 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia * Corresponding author’s email: nassul2003 [AT] yahoo.com _________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT— The study was conducted to investigate the effects of cutting intervals on the anti-nutritional factors, antioxidant activity and fatty acid composition of Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) foliage. An established Moringa plot dividing into 12 equal plots was subjected to 3 different maturity stages of harvesting at 4, 6 and 8 weeks in a completely randomized block design experiment. It was found that the level of total phenol and tannin (mg tannic acid equivalent/g dry weight) at 4 (51.86 and 34.90), 6 (43.89, and 27.96) and 8 (29.00 and 16.66) weeks of maturity decreased significantly. Similarly, with the increase of maturity the level of condensed tannin significantly decreased (0.23, 0.17 and 0.14 mg catechin equivalent/g dry weight, respectively). In the case of antioxidant activity, significantly higher DPPH inhibition activity was found after 4 weeks (60.1 %) compared to 6 and 8 weeks of maturity (56.0 and 53.4 %, respectively). However, the fatty acid composition of Moringa foliage was significantly affected with harvesting stage of maturity. It contained the highest level of α-linolenic acid followed by palmitic acid, linoleic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid, respectively (48.71, 21.65, 13.07, 5.89 and 4.63 % of the total identified fatty acids, respectively). The average level of poly unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) (61.78 %) was about three times higher than the level of saturated fatty acids (31.24 %). In conclusion, harvesting of Moringa foliage at 8 weeks interval would have less anti-nutritional factors with more PUFA and antioxidant activities. Keywords—Moringa oliefera, anti-nutritional factors, antioxidant activity, fatty acid composition ________________________________________________________________________________ 1. INTRODUCTION Over the last few years, the use of fodder trees and shrubs as feed resources has grown in interest for sustainable livestock production all over the world [1, 2]. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the suitability of available indigenous fodder trees to use as feed for livestock production. The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) developed the cultivation of Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena leucocephala through alley farming and feed gardens for supplying fresh fodder for ruminants [3]. However, these species may have restrictions in terms of productivity, palatability, presence of toxic substances and adaptability [4]. Also, the lack of enthusiasm of smallholder farmers to apply these tree species as supplements for ruminants requires the search for other tree species. The limitations in nutritional exploitation of tree leaves are the presence of anti-nutritional and toxic factors [5]. Moringa oliefera is the most widely cultivated species of Moringaceae family in some Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan [6]. It is reported that Moringa oleifera yielded significant amounts of fodder during the wet and dry season [7]. Moringa is reported to have high quality proteins for ruminants, which is easily digested and is influenced by the quality of its amino acids [8], with negligible amounts of anti-nutritional compounds [9]. Recent epidemiological and controlled-case studies reported that many anti-nutrients when present at low levels gives beneficial effects for the prevention of diseases like coronary diseases and cancers in human and animal models [10]. For this reason, anti-nutritional factors are often known as plant bioactives or non nutritive compounds. Some scientists have placed attention on the nutritional and secondary metabolite properties of Moringa [11]. This could be due to the fact that it increases animal productivity as it has nutritional, therapeutic and prophylactic properties