Supplementation of cooked broccoli with exogenous moringa myrosinase enhanced isothiocyanate formation

Brassica vegetables, especially broccoli, have health benefits such as anticancer activity, which are attributed to isothiocyanate (ITC), products of glucosinolate hydrolysis. This study aimed to explore the effect of cooking time and addition of exogenous myrosinase (MYR) from moringa seeds on the yield of ITCs. The results showed that raw broccoli produced a significantly high amount of ITCs, which decreased by almost 40% after microwaving the broccoli for 1 min. Introducing exogenous MYR by adding ground moringa seeds to cooked broccoli caused a notable increase in ITC of 38%. At pH 4.0-6.0, MYR showed optimal activity, and the thermal stability of MYR from moringa seeds was better than that from broccoli. The kinetic parameters indicated that MYR from moringa seeds had a higher affinity to sinigrin than that from broccoli seeds. This study was novel in reporting that adding ground moringa seeds to cooked broccoli enhanced ITC formation.