Moringa oleifera infusion supplementation, its effect on anthropometric and biochemical variables of adolescents from Cerro Guayabal, Ecuador.

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescence is a crucial stage in the ontogeny of the individual, making it a group of great interest to carry out nutritional studies.
Objectives: To assess the effect of a supplementation with infusion of four grams of Moringa oleifera leaf powder on anthropometric and biochemical variables in adolescents from the Cerro Guayabal community.

Methods: Non-experimental longitudinal section study. A supplementation with infusion of four grams of Moringa oleifera leaf powder was applied daily for six months. The data were processed with the support of the SPSS version 23 program. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine if the samples followed a normal distribution and the Chi square test was used to compare the associations of categorical variables. The level of statistical significance was established at p ≤ 0.05.
Results: after supplementation the mean values of the Body Mass Index, Arm Muscle Area and Arm Fat Area changed not significantly. The proportion of male adolescents with normal protein reserve increased and the proportion with low protein reserve decreased. The mean hemoglobin value changes favorably. The proportion of adolescents who previously had triglyceride risk values decreased significantly. Discussion: Moringa oleifera in different forms of incorporation into the diet, has caused favorable changes in body composition when the baseline has corresponded to severe malnutrition, dry leaf powder, in addition to containing iron, contains riboflavin and ascorbic acid, necessary for the conversion of ferric to ferrous ion and the mobilization
of ferritin.
Conclusions: Supplementation with Moringa oleifera infusion for six months did not cause significant changes in anthropometric variables, however, the proportion of adolescents who presented risk values for hemoglobin, ferritin, and lipid variables decreased significantly.