Mar 11

Moringa: A highly nutritious tropical leafy vegetable

by Jed W. Fahey

first published Feb 7, 2024 in Amjambo Africa (https://www.amjamboafrica.com/moringa-a-highly-nutritious-tropical-leafy-vegetable/)

Moringa oleifera (moringa) is the most widely cultivated species of a family of plants native to the sub-Himalayan tracts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. All parts of the moringa tree are edible and have long been consumed by humans.

This rapidly-growing tree (also known as the horseradish tree, drumstick tree, benzolive

tree, kelor, marango, mlonge, moonga, mulangay, nébéday, saijhan, sajna or Ben oil tree), was utilized by the ancient Romans, Greeks and Egyptians. It is now widely cultivated and has become naturalized in many locations in the tropics. It is a perennial softwood tree with timber of low quality, but which for centuries has been advocated for food, traditional medicinal and industrial uses. It is already an important crop in India, Ethiopia, the Philippines and the Sudan, and is being grown in West, East and South Africa, tropical Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Florida and the Pacific Islands.

Leaves as food. Moringa is especially promising as a food source in the tropics because the tree is in full leaf at the end of the dry season when other foods are typically scarce. Leaves can be eaten fresh, cooked, or stored as dried powder for many months without refrigeration, and reportedly without loss of nutritional value. A large number of reports on the nutritional qualities of moringa now exist in both the scientific and the popular literature. Moringa leaves have been used to combat malnutrition, especially among infants and nursing mothers.

Three non-governmental organizations in particular—Trees for Life (TFL), Church World Service (CWS) and Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization (ECHO) — advocate moringa as “natural nutrition for the tropics.” TFL has claimed that “ounce-for-ounce, moringa leaves contain more vitamin A than carrots, more calcium than milk, more iron than spinach, more vitamin C than oranges, and more potassium than bananas,” and that the protein quality of moringa leaves rivals that of milk and eggs.

Oral histories recorded by Lowell Fuglie with CWS in Senegal and throughout West Africa, have extensively documented countless instances of lifesaving nutritional rescue that are attributed to moringa. In fact, the nutritional properties of moringa are now so well known that there seems to be little doubt of the substantial health benefit to be realized by consumption of moringa leaves, and dried leaf powder, especially in situations where starvation is imminent.

In many cultures throughout the tropics, differentiation between food and medicinal uses of plants (e.g. bark, fruit, leaves, nuts, seeds, tubers, roots, flowers), is very difficult since plant uses span both categories and this is deeply ingrained in the traditions and the fabric of the communities. Nonetheless, a relative lack of well-controlled and well-documented clinical studies leads Western medicine practitioners to reserve judgement. Though relatively expensive in this country, dried, powdered leaves are readily available, and fresh-frozen leaves and seed-pods can be found in some ethnic specialty food stores in this country.

The use of moringa leaves, seeds, and seedpods as ingredients in foods or food supplements is safe and nutritious. As with any food ingredient you’ve never tried, start with a small amount and increase as you grow accustomed to it.

There are a multitude of recipes for incorporating moringa into meals. Recipes that fit in a variety of food traditions are published and posted in blogs, newsletters and websites (a sampling of links are at end of this article). Thus, the list includes such things as moringa- sweet potato pie, kale and beet salad, smoothies, pasta, pesto, crackers, pancakes, brownies, oatmeal, broccoli and zucchini soup, teas, etc.

The use of moringa in the tropical countries in which it is grown is as varied as the cuisines of these countries. For example, in a recent survey conducted in rural Mexico (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/fft2.103), household cooks noted:

1. For the quesadillas I’ll put in cheese and moringa leaflets. And if I make salsa, I’ll use moringa leaflets, some tomatoes, and a little bit of cilantro, and a little bit of onions, and a little bit of garlic, and some salt, and that’s it.

2. [I’ve used moringa when preparing] meat, quesadillas, in chicken, salsa, and in agua fresca, and only the seeds. Also, [my husband uses the flowers] in tea.

3. For me, it’s a vegetable that’s normal like cilantro… I want to put [moringa] in because it doesn’t have much flavor.

Seeds. Pressing of the seeds yields 30-40% of the seed weight as a sweet, non-sticking, non-drying oil that resists rancidity. It has been used in salads, for fine machine lubrication, and in the manufacture of perfume and hair care products. In the West, one of the best known uses for these seeds (powdered) is to flocculate contaminants and purify drinking water, but the seeds and the seedpods in which they are contained are also eaten green, roasted, powdered and steeped for tea or used in curries.

Disease treatment and prevention. Moringa preparations (e.g. extracts, decoctions, poultices, creams, oils, emollients, salves, powders, porridges) have long been used for the treatment or prevention of disease or infection. An abundance of traditional medicine claims attesting to the curative power of moringa have been subject to much less intense scientific scrutiny than its food uses. However, some of the more well-documented claims that have been cited in the scientific literature for moringa preparations include those for antibiotic, antitrypanosomal, hypotensive, antispasmodic, antiulcer, anti-inflammatory, hypocholesterolemic, and hypoglycemic activities. Perhaps most promising are the claims for type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, dental health, lactation (maternal milk production), for which clinical trials have been conducted or are in progress.

Non-food uses. Among moringa’s many other non-food uses are: biomass production, animal forage, biogas production, blue dye (from the wood), fencing (living trees), fertilizer (seed-cake), foliar nutrient (leaf juice), green manure, gum (from tree trunks), honey- and sugar cane juice-clarifier (powdered seeds), honey (from flowers), medicine (all plant parts), ornamental plantings, biopesticide, pulp-wood, rope (bark), and tannin for tanning hides (bark and gum).

Moringa: A highly nutritious tropical leafy vegetable

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Jed W. Fahey