Moringa (Merunggai, Kelor) - The Miracle Tree

Moringa is one of the vegetable plants; it is usually called the “drumstick tree".

In Indonesia, moringa is called kelor or merunggai and in Javanese, it is known as lamaran. Moringa is part of Moringaceae with Latin name, moringa oleifera (Price, 2007, p.1). Some people plant moringa as the fence or as the garden edge.
  


Moringa usually grows in 3-11 m high; it has oval leaves with a pale dark green color. Its flowers have a white pale color with fragrant scent. It has fruits in its 12th-18th months old with a long-trilateral shapes and green color, which usually has 20-60 cm length. Moringa lives in all seasons. When it came to ages, its fruits become brown with dark-brown seeds. Its stem grows vertically with dirty-white color and rough surface. Moringa can be planted by generative or vegetative in lowland and plateau until 1000 m above the sea. (Goyal, B. R., Agrawal, B. B., Goyal, K., R., Menta, A. A. 2007)

Long time ago, before the research of Moringa began, its leaves, flowers and fruits are usually cooked as vegetables. As the information on crediting web sources, a research about moringa has started in 1980 followed by many researchers after it. From that research, moringa is known having many benefits, especially in health. Until now, People used moringa to treat some diseases and the most often is influenza. Moringa also can prevent the landslide and usually plated in Konso and Arba Minch area as land conservator. A result of a research report about the utilization of moringa in 1993 has been used as the reforestation plants in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya by Germania team from Institute for Scientific Cooperation, Tubingen. In Indonesia, some people fasten this plant upon black magic as to expel Satan
    Each part of moringa is safe to be consumed. Moringa has a lot of benefits in each of its parts.  Moringa’s roots can be boiled as medicine (diuretic) for rheumatic, epilepsy and gonorrhea. The roots can be pounded as the powder for new babies’ born placenta and as the remedy for beriberi. Its steam used as snake and scorpions’ disinfectant. Its fruits have morongiona alkaloids to help food digestions, the flowers can be boiled and its water can be used as influenza’s medicine. The last, the seeds can be used as to filter water, as the cosmetics and oil (Irma, T., 2013).
The isothiocyanates, flavonoids, and phenolic acids in moringa leaves, pods, and seeds also have anti-inflammatory properties (Mecola, 2015).
The tree’s strong anti-inflammatory action is traditionally used to treat stomach ulcers. Moringa oil (sometimes called Ben oil) has been shown to protect the liver from chronic inflammation. The oil is unique in that, unlike most vegetable oils, moringa resists rancidity.
This quality makes it a good preservative for foods that can spoil quickly. This sweet oil is used for both frying or in a salad dressing. It is also used topically to treat antifungal problems, arthritis, and is an excellent skin moisturizer. According to the Epoch Times. (Mishra, S. P., Singh, P. & Singh, V., 2012)
 Moringa’s leaves can be consumed as tea which is known having highest nutrition as it has been dehydrated. The benefit of moringa is to supply energy and nutrition for body, good for hair, as anti-cancer. Moringa has a cold energy so that the herbal is good to make out diseases with hot energy such as laryngitis and cancer. Moringa can be used as heart disease medicine. In a research of a study for animals which is published in February 2009 edition of Journal of Medicinal Food, proved that a 200 mgs dosses given in 30 days can produce a fewer lipid acidic and can protect the heart from structural damage. Moringa also can fight diabetes; it is because moringa has natural insulin that can make out diabetes and it is good for eye and brain. Moringa vegetable is good to be consumed when it is still in warm condition, because the anti-acid effect is very strong in a warm condition. (Price, 2007, p.3)
    As mentioned before, we could find moringa easily; also, it is on sales with a cheap price in these 40 years in the poor countries in the world. Moringa tree spread along in Africa’s fields, America Latin, and Asia. National Institute of Health (NIH) in 2008, March 21 mentioned that moringa has been used by the local ethnic to prevent and to heal more than 300 diseases. Ancient India’s Ayurveda medicinal tradition proved that 300 kinds of diseases were curable by moringa oilefera. WHO (World Health Organization) called moringa as ‘miracle tree’ and recommended moringa for the babies in their growth ages because they found that moringa has 3 times potassium a lot than bananas, 4 times calcium a lot and a better twice protein a lot than milk and soy and 7 times A vitamin a lot than carrots. The oil from its seeds is known to be more impressive than olive oil. On top of that, science has proved moringa to be a powerhouse 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.
     Remembering its benefits for health, there are many alternative products from moringa with many types of pack.