Moringa Oleifera

Moringa Oleifera may very well be THE healthiest tree in existence. Its leaves contain more vitamin A than carrots, more calcium than milk, more potassium than bananas, more protein than yogurt, and more vitamin C than oranges. Add in all the amazing compounds in it, and it's no surprise that many feel it is THE plant that might stop malnutrition around the world. In traditional medicine, it is used extensively, including for intestinal issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa_oleifera#General_nutrition
http://www.treesforlife.org/our-work/our-initiatives/moringa

I grow the tree and am working to grow many more. I add the leaves to everything from smoothies to soups and feel that it helps my symptoms. I have no scientific backing for that assertion though.

Anyway, if any of you would like to try some as an experiment and are in the USA (sorry, international postage is too expensive and a pain) I'll be happy to send you some for free. I have enough for four people, so first come, first serve, reply to this thread requesting some and I will PM you. And no, I'm not working towards charging any of you guys for this, it's just a gift from me for being a part of this community. By the time it gets to you it will likely be pretty dried. Its best use would be as a tea or in soups.

Keep in mind that like anything, this could in some way make your symptoms worse or interact with your medications so caveat emptor, discuss it with your doctor, etc.

All of mine is gone for now, sorry!

I don't know specifically what the vitamin A or potassium content of those leaves might be (oh hey, look, your linked article says exactly how much, cool!), but it should be noted that it IS possible to overdose on vitamin A, and I think it may be possible for potassium as well. Be careful of your dosage of fat soluble vitamins in general.

Neat info, David. I'd never heard of this plant before.

I'd love to try it out. :biggrin:

It's really not possible to overdose on plant based vitamin A as the body has co-evolved along with plants to have mechanisms in place to stop that from happening (though you may turn orange...). The condition caused by vitamin A toxicity is called hypervitaminosis A. It is caused by over-consumption of preformed vitamin A which is found in foods from animal sources or supplements. You're not going to get too much potassium from plant based sources either. Most of us need more than we take in. RDA for adults is 4700mg and a banana (what most think of when they think of potassium) provides only 422mg.

ctrl z said:

I'd love to try it out. :biggrin:

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PM sent. 3 bags left.

*edit* 2 bags left.

*edit* 1 bag left.

*edit* All gone

I'd never heard of a distinction between plant or animal based vitamin sources w.r.t. overdose or ill effects. I'll definitely look that up now. Thanks, David!

Vitamin A is CRAZY complicated. Here's two GREAT places to start:

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-HealthProfessional/
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins/vitaminA/

David,
Does this stuff have a taste or an aftertaste? I've been looking it over, but none of the info seems to state this. Be pretty cool if we could grow it in other parts of the U.S.

It has a very mild taste and I don't feel it has an after taste. I can eat the leaves raw off the tree and while I don't enjoy the flavor that way, it's not so strong that I need to spit them out. As a tea, it has a light flavor but I prefer mixing it with green tea.

I'm not sure what zone Moringa is hardy to. I'll see if I can find that.

As I believe everyone should know where their food comes from, here's where your Moringa is coming from.

It'll be coming from my upstart food forest farm in South Florida and specifically from this tree:



This tree has been raised utilizing organic principles and I have sprayed it with NOTHING.

To harvest, I cut off a branch and then snip it into smaller pieces and hang them to dry. This was done today as I want you guys to have super fresh Moringa. I wish I could send it to you right off the tree but I find it molds pretty quickly when fresh if it's not dried and I can't afford to overnight all of you Moringa



Once it's sufficiently dried I'll bag it and send it that day.

After seeing this picture, I think we all know what to get you for Christmas David! (More drying agents)

I'd love to try that if you still have some! I'll put it in the vitamix.

Sure, you get the last bag

I got mine in the mail yesterday, thanks David. Cross-stitch gal, you asked about the taste - I put a few leaves into hot water for my tea this morning, and the taste was VERY mild. I usually drink chamomile tea which I consider to have a mild taste, and this was even milder than that. If I didn't know that I had put leaves in the water, I may have thought I was drinking plain hot water. I'm going to use a few more leaves tomorrow morning and see if more leaves makes for a stronger taste. I steeped the leaves for about 10 minutes in the water (I used a tea ball) so I might try steeping even longer too tomorrow.

I would also be interested to know the hardiness of this tree and if it could survive winter up here in the cold snowy north. If you are snipping off an entire branch each time you dry the leaves, how quickly does the tree take to recover/grow a new branch? Or was that just a one-time thing where you snipped the branch off just for us?

Is this available commercially? Do you know if the fiber content is soluble or insoluble? Sounds like a densely nutritious food.

nogutsnoglory said:

Is this available commercially? Do you know if the fiber content is soluble or insoluble? Sounds like a densely nutritious food.

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I have seen it on Amazon in powder and supplement forms. not sure how "natural" they are in these states though.

I tried the fresh leaves though and enjoyed them thoroughly. Not sure where to get them and can't grow them in Chicago climates nor is there space to do so in this city.

I have 5 days dried malunggay tea (Moringa Tea)to drinking. Every day a glass in the morning. On the 5th day, I received an hour later a strong itching all over my body, He held up in the late afternoon on. I stop for 3 days with drink and it did not come back. So I took another malunggay tea roduct and tried again. After 2 days I had the same side effects again. It was weaker and heard after lunch on. Why is this so with me

I have recently started to take it in powder form and tea form. Early days yet but it seems to be helping. I was on another IBD forum until recently and everybody on there were saying how good this stuff was for them. From their suggestions I decided to try it. Certainly seems to be helping with energy levels but only been on it a few weeks and I know it takes some months to build up to useable levels in your body. Apparently it contains 36 known anti-inflammatory agents, 92 nutrients and 46 antioxidants. They are using it to restore health to malnourished babies in Africa.....so it should work wonders for IBD. I like the taste too which always makes this easier to take

Looks good but begs the question, why not just buy a good multi vitamin? (for those not growing their own)

Multivitamins:

1. Often have synthetic forms of vitamins such as vitamin A.
2. Do not have protein/amino acids
3. Often contain minerals that are not very absorbable such as magnesium oxide.

geez....just looked again at my multivits.......maltodextrin!

looked over a dozen or so fermented green type products, every single one has stevia.....

found one that doesnt.....uses raw veggies which isnt going to be good ugh, why cant anyone just do this right? lol

never heard of this moringa somehow escaped me, so anyway looking to things like this to help replace this dumb multi now...

kind of nice at least this one seems kind of straight up....unlike matcha or something with 9 diff grades to hunt thru...

46 antioxidants, 92 nutrients, 36 anti-inflammatory agents in this tho? ok sign me up...