The Moringa Tree

It’s often called the “the miracle tree” or the “tree of life.” In the Philippines, they call it a “mother’s best friend.” In Senegal, it’s the “never die tree.”

Virtually every part of the moringa tree (Moringa oleifera) — pods that taste like string beans, leaves redolent of spinach, seeds reminiscent of peanuts, roots that taste like horseradish — is edible and packed with nutrients. A small serving of the humble-looking moringa’s tiny leaves has seven times the amount of vitamin C of an orange, four times the calcium of milk, and four times the beta-carotene of carrots, according to nutrition researcher C. Gopalan’s Nutritive Value of Indian Foods. Not surprisingly, the tree, which is native to north India, is developing a cult followingamong natural foods enthusiasts.

But the slender, scrawny looking tree has got far more than nutrition going for it. The moringa might be the fastest growing valuable plant in the world — it grows up to 15 feet, from seed, in its first year. Because it’s drought-resistant, the moringa can grow freakishly fast in precisely the hot, dry subtropical areas where malnutrition is most prevalent, and where other crops wither (hence “the never die” nickname).

The moringa is also a promising biofuel and medicinal source. For hundreds of years, people have been using the moringa for everythingfrom cooking oil and cosmetics to animal feed and cleaning agent. But undoubtedly the most amazing quality of the moringa is that it can purify water. Just drop some crushed moringa seeds in a bucket of dirty, unsafe water, and within about an hour, that water will be safe to drink. Scientists say it’s because the moringa seeds produce chemicals that cause dirt and bacteria and other pollutants to settle. The moringa seed could provide a simple yet valuable tool in poor communities where diarrhea caused by water-borne bacteria is one of the biggest sources of childhood fatalities, according to a paper in Current Protocols in Microbiology.