Harnessing Moringa oleifera Lam's Isothiocyanates for Targeted H2S Delivery: A Systematic Review of the Literature

The gasotransmitter hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and its natural donor isothiocyanates have been suggested by emerging evidence to play a significant role in the therapeutic management of several conditions like metabolic syndrome, neurodegeneration, inflammation, and so forth. In particular, isothiocyanates from Moringa oleifera Lam have been found to be more stable than those from cruciferous vegetables and Alliaceae, although they are less studied. For this reason, the present review aims to conduct a systematic literature search to outline the potential clinical applications of isothiocyanates, as a source of H2S, formed from glucosinolates present in M. oleifera. The systematic search was performed on Scopus and PubMed using wide-ranging keywords such as “Isothiocyanates” and “Moringa,” “Isothiocyanates,” and “Moringin,” and “Moringin” alone. The selection was limited to publications written in English. All articles containing information on the biological activity of M. oleifera's isothiocyanates were considered for selecting articles for analysis. Review articles, letters, book chapters, editorials, conference papers, systematic reviews, and short surveys were not considered. This allowed the selection of 42 papers, which were analyzed per pathologies and evaluated for the risk of biases using the QUIN tool. Hence, this review gives an overview of the potential health benefits linked to M. oleifera's isothiocyanates as a natural source of H2S.