Moringa Oleifera is the most well known of the 13 varities of Moringa. It is progated from either stem cuttings or seed. It is an exceptionally nutritious vegetable tree.Except for the bark, which can be toxic, every part of the tree is edible. The young, tender, mustard-favored leaves are eaten raw in salads and cooked as a tasty potherb. The cooked leaves are also placed in soups and curries. The leaves can also be powdered and used as a spice. The edible flowers taste similar to radish. Either the flowers, fresh or dried, or young leaves can be used for tea. The immature pods are cooked whole or the seeds removed and cooked as peas. Mature seeds are roasted and eaten as nuts. Mature seeds are also pressed for their oil. The roots can be ground and used as horesradish. The tree itself, is used as a living fence.
Which is what Moringa Oleifera is: A tree, with a gnarly trunk and tousled head of foliage that make it look like a cypress that just rolled out of bed. It is a common tree that thrives in both the desert and the living room and produces leaves, pods, seeds and flowers that each do uncommon things” ………
Mark Fritz, LA Times, Staff Writer
Moringa is known in 82 countries by 210 different names, but the one name that fully encompasses all its attributes is “the Miracle Tree”. The indigenous knowledge and use of Moringa is referenced in more than 80 countries and known in over 200 local languages. Moringa has been used by various societies (Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Indian to mention a few) for thousands of years with writings dating as far back as 150 AD
While the continued use of Moringa for food and medicinal purposes by cultures in separate and distant parts of the world attest to its beneficial effects, Moringa is a recent “discovery” of modern science. The leaves of Moringa Oleifera are nature’s multi-vitamin providing 7x the vitamin C of oranges, 4x the calcium of milk, 4x the vitamin A of carrots, 3x the potassium of bananas, and 2x the protein of yogurt. On top of that, science is proving Moringa to be a power house of nutrients; 90 are known to date, with the possibility of more yet to be identified. If that were not enough, Moringa has no known impurities, with no adverse reactions ever recorded.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research has started to pay attention to Moringa oleifera. A recent article in the March 2008 issue of NIH Record held a “mystery plant challenge”. They praise the plant and mention “…perhaps like no other single species, this plant has the potential to help reverse multiple major environmental problems and provide for many unmet human needs CLICK HERE
MORINGA PLANT 