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Moringa, it’s the new Alfalfa

As you may, or may not know, alfalfa is the most widely cultivated legume in the world.  The average American consumes 1.5 tons of alfalfa per year.  How strange is that?  Have you ever eaten a giant plate full of alfalfa?  Most people would think that they do not eat any alfalfa at all, yet if you have eaten any kind of animal product, especially dairy, then yes you are most likely participating in the production and consumption of alfalfa.  It is an amazing and wonderful plant and a very important part of life in the United States of America.

alfalfa

The cost of producing animal protein products for human consumption is a major concern for people who think about such things.  Milk, eggs, cheese and meat are all luxurious types of proteins that many Americans take for granted.  I personally enjoy cheese a great deal.

moringa oleifera leaves

I believe that industrial usage of moringa oleifera has the capacity to reduce livestock production costs by %30-50, while simultaneously increasing production efficiency and improving the quality of end products produced.

There are many factors involved with making a statement like that.  Adaptability of markets, and development of industrial systems and machinery all play an important role in making an accurate estimation of production costs for a crop like this.  Other important factors are specific to exactly which animal products are being produced.

Moringa Oleifera is too nutritionally dense to completely replace existing protein sources in livestock diets.  For each type of animal being raised, there is some specific percentage of their diet that could be optimally replaced with Moringa in order to improve protein conversion rates and reduce feed costs.  Additionally, the natural anti-biotic and anti-parasitic abilities of moringa are capable of reducing chemical inputs and increasing the quality and marketability of products.

 

References:

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Balbir Mathur retiring as head of Trees For Life

After 30 years of helping people around the world, Balbir Mathur is retiring as president of the Trees For Life organization.  His organization has helped millions by sharing food trees and in other ways.  Their work includes much effort to share the miracle of moringa with impoverished people in tropical and subtropical locales.  Trees for Life has recently been working on an internet website that can help teachers in developing countries with little or no training to learn techniques for better teaching.

Trees for Life helps communities by helping to build resources locally and by increasing understanding and ownership of those resources.  By increasing the availability of useful technology in these communities, the quality of life can be improved for many people without excessive cost.

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Moringa Links

Botanic Planet makes no claim about the quality of the following websites nor does it endorse any of the products offered.  These links are included for informational purposes.

There’s the first chunk (52 in first batch) One quart containers.

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Moringa extract vs. diabetes mellitus in adult rats

Researchers at Beni Suef University and Cairo University in Egypt have performed an experiment where they discovered that an aqueous extract of Moringa Oleifera leaves had a potent anti-diabetic effect when used to treat streptozotocin-induced diabetic albino rats.

Reference:
Acta Histochemica, “Extract of Moringa oleifera leaves ameliorates streptozotocin-induced Diabetes mellitus in adult rats” Hanan Dawood Yassa, Adel Fathy Tohamy 20 March 2014 (Link to article)

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Moringa extracts used to reduce inflammation

An article published by The Phytochemical Society of Europe and The Phytochemical Society of North America reports that an aqueous extract of moringa leaves could be used in a process to produce an extract which contains isothiocyanates, which can alleviate low-grade inflammation.

phytochemistry journal

Reference:
Carrie Watermana,  Diana M. Chenga Patricio Rojas-Silvaa Alexander Pouleva Julia Dreifusa Mary Ann Lilab Ilya Raskin  (Direct link to report) “Stable, water extractable isothiocyanates from Moringa oleifera leaves attenuate inflammation in vitro” Phytochemistry Volume 103, July 2014, Pages 114–122

 

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Moringa Oleifera can help fight cancer

Il Lae Jung, a researcher for the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute recently published an article describing an experiment where extract from Moringa Oleifera leaves were tested in vitro against cancerous cells and discovered significant benefits vs cancerous activity.  The experiment showed greatly induced apoptosis, inhibited tumor cell growth, and lowered the level of internal reactive oxygen species (ROS) in human lung cancer cells as well as other types of cancer cells, suggesting that the treatment of cancer cells with MOL significantly reduced cancer cell proliferation and invasion.  Also, Moringa appeared to have greater toxicity for tumorous cells than for normal cells, strongly suggesting that it could potentially be an ideal anticancer therapeutic candidate specific to cancer cells.

Written by: Paul Sober

Reference
1. Il Lae Jung (2014) Effect of Moringa Oleifera extract against cancerous cells. plosone.org | Volume 9 | Issue 4 | e95492 (link to article)
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Purchasing Moringa

Here are some links for moringa products and sources for bulk moringa leaf or moringa leaf powder:

Moringa prices vary widely depending on the source.  I’ve seen it for as much as $44/lb, or as low as $9, depending on where you look.  My favorite is the last link, zoffs, which offers it for around $15/lb after shipping and handling.  Make sure you ask for the commercial packaging, unless you’re ok with ziplock bags.

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Moringa Links

Moringa is an super cool plant.  I have had arthritis since I was a child and have recently been eating moringa oleifera on a regular basis.  My arthritis has steadily been improving and I have noticed some other benefits.  Here are some links to other pages about it’s many benefits:

There is obviously much work being done with this plant around the world.  I am so excited about it.  It is an excellent plant.  Of all the plants that I grow, it is my absolute favorite.  It grows so beautifully.

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How I discovered Moringa

I enjoy growing plants and learning about their growing processes.  My childhood included time living on farms, learning about plants, and I still spend a lot of time in the garden and online learning about plants around the world.

microgreens

Plants absorb sunlight and nutrients from the soil and produce all kinds of awesome stuff.  There is more to it of course, there are insects and other things that exploit their processes.  There are also other things to think about, for instance farming systems effect other biological systems, and the petroleum costs associated with mass production are a major consideration.  Economics and other social structures are also effected by farming and in turn effect farming decisions.  Farming is much more complicated then just putting some stuff in the ground and watering it.

moringa in my garden

So, one day, as was oft to occur, my browser found it’s way to a website where an Indian herb company was advertising their inventory of locally produced herbs (herbs produced on a farm in India).  This was a commercial entity that did not list any information about their products other then their name, so I was going through their inventory and researching things that they produced and became interested when I discovered a page about a farm in South Africa where Moringa was being used to produce livestock feed, and where they included some information about their experiences.

moringa leaves

The more I researched it, the more my interest grew.  What an interesting and amazing plant.  It is nutritional, medicinal and a very vigorously growing tree. Since I live in a temperate zone, I believed it was just another plant that I wouldn’t be able to grow until some mystical date in the future when I might be able to obtain or build a greenhouse. Although it is a tropical tree, I have discovered that it can be grown just about anywhere as an annual with just a little help.

Moringa Cuttings

Three years ago, I began growing it, and have since begun breeding and propagating it.  It’s really amazing.  It can help with many different health problems and can generally improve the quality of life for people.  It is one of the reasons that infant mortality rates are plummeting in in impoverished nations.

Moringa Seedling

One day, I noticed that Moringa seeds were becoming more and more common on ebay, and more articles were being written by people growing it at home, here in The United States of America.  This is significant because it has now become a common food item and is no longer just an imported novelty plant.  Because of the way the USDA handles nutritional supplements, this is important because it is now possible to legally produce nutritional supplements using moringa without having any special certification.

Moringa Smoothie

This year, I am dedicating most of my garden to it.  I am taking moringa as a protein supplement and working out and not only is moringa oleifera packed with healthy, bioavailable protein, it also helps with arthritis which I have had since I was a child.