Moringa Oleifera a miracle for rural communities in developing countries?

Why Moringa Oleifera?

Imagine a tree in your backyard that will meet all your nutritional needs, take care of you medicinally, and purify your water for you. This tree actually exists (NaturalNews). The ancient traditional medicine of India called ayurveda says the leaves of the Moringa tree prevent 300 diseases. Modern science is confirming that these leaves could help prevent untold suffering and death caused by malnutrition and related diseases. (Trees for Life)

Nutrition
Nearly all parts of the Moringa tree have a high degree of nutritional value. Together, the edible parts of the tree contain high amounts of the 8 essential amino acids that you body does not produce but must be replenished daily. Particular attention has been drawn to the leaves of the tree. Below you can see the nutritional content of fresh leaves compared gram-to-gram to other foods:

Source: Trees for Life

However, the nutritional content of the leaves varies significantly depending on whether they are consumed dry or fresh, meaning that you get additional benefits if you consume both. Gram-for-gram dried leaves measure up against other foods as follows:

10x the Vitamin A of carrots 0.5x the vitamin C of oranges 17x the Calcium of Milk 15x the potassium of Bananas 25x the iron of spinach 9x the protein of yoghurt
On top of this both the flowers and the pods/seeds are highly nutritious. The immature pods, which can be eaten raw or cooked like green beans, contain all the essential amino

Christopher Alford - MaD Making a Difference for Good Cambodia - 2010

acids and are also high in fiber and many other vitamins and nutrients. When eaten raw, it has also been said that they act as an effective de-wormer and can treat liver and spleen problems (although this has yet to be scientifically proven). The seeds have been used in traditional medicines for their antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties. The flowers (which much be cooked), are rich in both calcium and potassium. Traditionally, they have been boiled in teas which can be used to both treat colds and also to increase the flow of a mothers breast milk. All of these nutrients make Moringa an exceedingly powerful tool in fighting both malnutrition and preventing disease. It is of particular benefit to pregnant women and infants. One study found that children consuming leaf powder increased their weight and their overall health, whilst pregnant women using the powder recovered from anemia and had babies with higher birth weights. Studies are now examining the possibility of using Moringa to fight the spread of HIV/Aids and to improve the health of HIV infected people, and have yielded promising results. Sources & further reading on the nutritional value of Moringa: Moringa Oleifera book by Trees for Life Presentation on Moringa by Trees for Life Moringa Oleifera: The Miracle Tree NaturalNews The Moringa Tree: A local solution to malnutrition? Lowell Fuglie Nutritional Values of Moringa Leaves & Pods Dolcas Biotec Moringa Oleifera: Multipurpose Tree GardenOrganic Can Moringa change the face of AIDS? Resources on the preparation of Moringa leaves/pods/flowers: Moringa Tree of Life preparation guidelines Miracle Trees Moringa recipes Making Moringa leaf powder Miracle Trees Moringa leaves and pods preparation illustrated guide Moringa leaves preparation illustrated guide Moringa Recipes - ECHO Moringa Leaf brochure Baby formulas enriched by Moringa

Cultivation
Moringa Oleifera is an ideal plant to promote at the household level because it is extremely resilient to harsh growing environments, including drought, poor soil quality and many pests and diseases. They are also very fast growing, with normal growth ranging from 3-5 meters per year if left uncut. It is one of the fasted growing biomasses on the planet if thoroughly nourished and can grow up to 7 meters a year. Furthermore, in warm climates the trees are evergreen if they are kept well nourished and can therefore continue to provide poor families with access to food even in times when other food is scarce. The Moringa tree grows best in temperatures between 25-35c, but can tolerate heat up to 48c in the shade. It prefers a well-drained sandy-loam or loam soil, but tolerates clay as well. However, young saplings do not tolerate flooding and poor drainage well, so

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precautions should be taken when growing young Moringa trees in tropical climates with prolonged monsoon seasons. Moringa trees can be grown by planting seeds directly into the ground, by growing them in a nursery and then transplanting them or by growing them from a cutting. When transplanting the saplings, particular care should be taken with the roots as the saplings can quickly wither and potentially die if the soil around their roots in disturbed. If available, Moringa trees should be planted with compost as this has been shown to increase yields by up to 3x. It is also advisable to put a fence around young Moringa trees, as livestock find the leaves very tasty and can quickly destroy a young tree if it is not protected. When Moringa trees are cultivated for food production they need to be regularly pruned in order to ensure a bushy, rather than upright growth which will produce more leaves/flowers/pods within easier reach as a result. When a Moringa tree stops bearing pods/flowers these branches also need to be cut back in order to restart the growth process. These cuttings can also be used to grow new Moringa trees. Moringa leaves can be harvested roughly one year after planting. Pods and flowers tend to be produced in the second year of growth and the tree will continue to bear them for several years. Sources & further reading on the cultivation of Moringa trees: Growing Moringa for personal use Moringa Farms Suggested Cultural Practices for Moringa AVRDC Cultivation of Moringa Oleifera Leicester University How to Grow Moringa Oleifera - Trees for Life Growing Moringa Miracle Trees guide Planting Moringa Oleifera - Moringa Seeds guide Illustrated guide on cultivation & pruning of Moringa Moringa News Cultivation & harvesting of Moringa leaves Moringa News Illustrated guide on growing and harvesting Moringa leaves Moringa News E-how growing guide

Purifying Water
When crushed into a powder, the seeds from Moringa trees act as a natural flocculent which can be used to purify dirty water, eliminating between 90-99% of bacteria. The powder joins to the solids in the water and sinks to the bottom (see photos below). The residue (seed cake) left over from making Ben Oil from the seeds (see below) can be used in the same way. The sludge left over from the water after treatment can also be used as a bio-fertilizer/bio-compost which has been shown to increase yields of other staple food crops. This therefore presents an excellent cycle for the seeds which can be used by rural communities: firstly using the seeds to make Ben Oil (which can be sold on); then using the seed cake from the oil extraction process to purify water and then finally using the sludge left over from the water purification process as a bio-fertilizer for other crops.

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Water purification using Moringa seeds:

Fig 1. Dirty water

Source: Miracle Trees

Fig 2. Dirt sinks to bottom Fig 3. Cleaned water after 1 hour

Sources and further reading on purifying water using Moringa seeds: Quenching the thirst of millions in the third world application of processed Moringa Oleifera seeds in drinking water treatment Suleyman Muyibi Moringa Oleifera: Multipurpose Tree GardenOrganic Purifying water using Moringa Oleifera Miracle Trees Moringa Oleifera Water Purification - Trees for Life Water clarification using Moringa Oleifera Gate The use of Moringa Oleifera seed as a natural coagulant for water & wastewater treatment Sutherland & Folkard Guide on how to make a Moringa bio-sand filter & how to prepare seeds for the diaphragm Flowman Illustrated diagram of water purification Moringa News Moringa Seeds & Pumice as alternative natural materials for drinking water treatment KTH How to purify water using Moringa seeds - Howtopedia

Animal fodder & crop fertilizer

Moringa leaves can also be used very effectively as an animal feed. One study found that after giving milk cows a continued diet of Moringa leaves their daily weight gain increased by up to 32% and their milk production went up from 43-65%. When harvesting Moringa leaves, the leftover stalks can be fed to livestock with similar benefits. Furthermore, another study has found by extracting the juice from the green matter of the plants, mixing it with water and then spraying it onto other crops, it increased the growth of young plants; produced more fruit and larger fruit on other plants and increased yields in some crops by 20-35%. Sources & further reading: Effects of feeding different levels of foliage of Moringa Oleifera to creole dairy cows Sanchez, Sporndly & Ledin Presentation on Moringa by Trees for Life

Enterprise Development Ben Oil

The seeds of Moringa yield a 38-40% edible oil known as Ben Oil. This oil is relatively easy to extract using simple household technology and can be used/sold for a huge variety of uses: cooking (it is colorless, odorless and resists rancidity), cosmetics (it has properties which are very nourishing for the skin), perfumes, massages, aromatherapy, oiling machinery, making soap and it has even been speculated that it could be used as a biofuel. It is one of the most stable oils in nature and does not go rancid, having a shelf

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life of up to 5 years. Therefore, extracting Ben Oil from Moringa seeds has a lot of potential commercially for communities in developing countries. There is already an increasing demand for Moringa oil in the west, where it is recognized as a luxury aromatherapy oil. Resources: Moringa Oil extraction Trees for life Quenching the thirst of millions in the third world application of processed Moringa Oleifera seeds in drinking water treatment Suleyman Muyibi Moringa Oil Tearfund Commercial opportunities & constraints of Moringa Oleifera Sutherland Ben oil information & extraction Miracle Trees Ben Oil - Wikipedia Moringa Oil

Medicinal uses
Various parts of the Moringa tree have been used as traditional medicines to treat a wide variety of ailments in Asia and Africa. It is said that the various parts of the Moringa tree can effectively treat ailments such as: headaches, worms, diarrhoea, stomach ulcers, skin conditions, anemia, infections, fevers, urinary problems, liver and spleen problems, arthritis and rheumatism. However, one should be cautious when promoting Moringa for this purpose at this point in time as these traditional remedies have yet to scientifically proven. This is especially important for remedies relating to the use of Moringa roots, which can be highly toxic if not prepared correctly. Nevertheless, you can read about traditional remedies that the tree has been used for in the following links: http://www.miracletrees.org/TraditionalMedicine.html http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/113453143/PDFSTART

Interested in Moringa? Then read about Amaranth

Amaranth grain has also been hailed as a key crop in the fight against hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. Similar to Moringa trees, these crops have been highlighted for their exceedingly high nutritional value, their ability to grow in harsh growing environments and their suitability for household/smallholder farming in the third world. Furthermore, one study has found that Amaranth and Moringa complement each other nutritionally very well. Below are some resources on Amaranth: Amaranth: the solution to the worlds hunger, malnutrition, poverty & disease Amaranth: the ideal crop to add to small famers polyculture in developing nations? Amaranth farming: rural sustainable livelihood of the future? From weed crop to cash crop: Amaranth Amaranth: the grain of the future

Christopher Alford - MaD Making a Difference for Good Cambodia - 2010