Moringa Oleifera is a plant known for its numerous nutritional properties and uses. The parts of the plant are edible and are often cooked, roasted, or turned into tea. It has also seen industrial use with the plant seeing use in cosmetic products and agriculture. The Moringa Oleifera’s benefits are evident in medicine as well and are capable of treating over 300 diseases and is used as herbal medicine in some parts of the world.
What is Moringa Oleifera?
Moringa Oleifera is a plant frequently found and grown in some regions of Asia and Africa. It grows well in humid tropics or hot dry lands. It is popular worldwide due to the plant’s many benefits and uses. In some parts of Asia and Africa, the Moringa Oleifera is a favorite vegetable due to the nutritional properties of the different parts when consumed. In the Philippines, it is often taken by women to enhance breast milk production and reduce the risk of anemia.
Due to the plants’ usability, the Moringa Oleifera sees use in different ways. Sections of the market including food, agriculture, industrial products, and medicine use the plant.
The Moringa Oleifera is a super food due to the vitamins and minerals it contains and is theorized as one of the solutions to malnutrition. Different types of cooking can use all the parts of the plant. It can be boiled or fried like a vegetable and eaten or be added in sauces or soups or turned into paste. The leaves of a plant can also be boiled and drank as a tea. Moringa oil can also be used as a healthier alternative to cooking oil. The seeds can are roasted then eaten like peanuts.
In the medicinal field, research on the Moringa Oleifera is seen as capable of being antibiotic, antioxidant, antifungal and more. It is able to cure or prevent diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer.
In the agricultural and industrial fields, the Moringa Oleifera sees great use. Products that use the plant in agriculture are biodiesel, manure, fertilizers, and pesticides because of its antimicrobial properties as a coagulant. Industrial products with Moringa Oleifera are cosmetic products (e.g. perfumes), lubricants, and snacks (as a food additive). It is also seen by beekeepers as a useful source of nectar.
Benefits of Moringa Oleifera
Moringa Oleifera is full of vitamins, nutrients, and minerals
A great range of healthy and beneficial properties are in the plant. Minerals are rich in are calcium, potassium, zinc, magnesium, and copper. It also contains vitamins A, B, C, D, and E. It contains calcium (one leaf can provide twice the calcium content of a glass of milk) and iron (a moringa leaf powder has more iron content than meat) and zinc as well. The immature pods and flowers also have palmitic, linolenic, linoleic and oleic acids. The plant is also low in calories and can be useful when dieting to cure obesity.
Moringa Oleifera can prevent diabetes
The plant is able to prevent and maybe cure Type-1 (where the body is unable to produce insulin) and Type-2 diabetes (where the body is resistant to insulin). Moringa Oleifera can be an anti-diabetic agent and a study found that consumption of the plant is able to reduce fasting blood sugar. Another study found that 10 healthy adults who took Moringa Oleifera saw an increase in their insulin secretion which is possible that evidence that the plant may treat Type-2 diabetes, this study also supports that insulin activity increased along with glucose uptake.
Moringa Oleifera may treat Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes patients but there is a need for further human trials.
Moringa Oleifera may treat cancer
One of the benefits of Moringa Oleifera maybe cancer cure and prevention. It can be used as an anticancer agent because of its natural properties and is reliable and safe to use. Studies have also shown that Moringa Oleifera can reduce the growth of cancer cells as well when using the extracts of the plants’ leaves. There is also evidence that suggests that the plant has anti-tumor properties even when it was used as seed ointment. The effects of chemotherapy are also enhanced. Moringa Oleifera intake helped reduce the growth of pancreatic cancer cells by improving the effects of the drug according to this study.
Future clinical studies are warranted but there is initial evidence that Moringa Oleifera can treat cancer.
Moringa Oleifera may treat high blood pressure
The leaves of the Moringa Oleifera Nitrile contain bioactive compounds such as mustard oil glycosides and thiocarbamate glycosides are which are responsible for the reduction and stabilization of blood pressure. Healthy consumption of the plant may also lower the blood pressure of hypertensive patients as indicated in a study.
An experiment in Côte d’Ivoire also found that a composition containing the leaves of Moringa Oleifera with salt and another plant called Bidens pilosa managed to reduce blood pressure.
More clinical research must be done to find a definite conclusion, but there is initial evidence that Moringa Oleifera can treat high blood pressure.
Moringa Oleifera is capable of treating other diseases
Different health problems have all been found to be treatable by Using different parts of the Moringa Oleifera. The leaves are capable of treating headaches, diarrhea, the flu and more with its nutritional properties. The seeds are able to help in treating diseases such as hyperthyroidism, cramps, epilepsy and more with the chemicals present inside them. The root of the plant can fight against ulcer and cardiac problems by relaxing the muscles. The flowers of the Moringa Oleifera can help against influenza-like diseases and urinary infections. The pods of the plant can treat problems with liver or with the spleen.
Additional clinical studies are warranted with the initial results found with treating several diseases.
Conclusion
Moringa Oleifera’s benefits are nearly endless and even with the need of more human trials when it comes to its medicinal properties, there are enough research results that point towards the plant being may be able to cure and prevent a bevy of diseases and ailments.
