1. Moringa The Miracle Tree

2. Moringa – AKA Miracle Tree Drumstick Tree Horseradish Tree
Ben Oil Tree
West Indian Ben
Mother’s Best Friend
Tree that grows like crazy
Radish Tree

3. Location, Location, Location
India
Africa
Arabia
South East Asia
South America
Pacific Islands
Caribbean Islands
Drumstick (Moringa indica, Moringaceae) is a native of India, and possibly parts of Africa, Arabia, South East Asia, South America and the Pacific and Caribbean Islands. The vegetable drumstick plant is also named as "ben oil tree" after commercial oil extracted from the seeds. The root of the drumstick tree is sometimes used as a substitute for horseradish and hence it is also called the "horseradish tree." The drumstick leaves fruits and flowers are edible and a common vegetable in India, the Philippines, Hawaii, and many parts of Africa and Asia. Drumstick tree is often planted in Africa as a living fence. It is generally believed in South Asia that drumstick trees planted on graves are will keep away the ghosts and evil spirits and hence its branches are used as charms against witchcraft.

4. Growing Conditions
Semi-Arid
Hot
No Frost

5. Currently Cultivated In
tropical Africa
tropical America
Sri Lanka
India
Mexico
Malaysia
the Philippines
The drumstick tree is widely cultivated in tropical Africa, tropical America, Sri Lanka, India, Mexico, Malaysia and the Philippines. The drumstick tree can be propagated using seeds or cuttings. Seeds may be sown directly in the field or in seedbeds and the seedlings transplanted to the field after 2 to 3 months. Mature stem cuttings 3 to 5 ft ( m) long can also be used for planting. The tree grows rapidly, producing the first fruits within 6-12 months of planting, depending on the cultivar. The drumstick leaves and pods are used as vegetables, aphrodisiac, food and medicine in Asia (Ramachandran et al., 1980). The flowers are consumed either mixed and cooked with other foods or fried in batter. Tender leaves are used to flavor ghee and to enhance the shelf-life of ghee. Traditionally the drumstick seeds have been used to purify domestic household water in rural areas in Sudan (Jahn, 1981, Jahn et al., 1986). Women collecting water would tie the ground seeds and suspend in the turbid water overnight. The oil extracted from the seeds (ben oil) was used for culinary purposes, a practice that has now been long discontinued. Almost all parts of the tree have been utilized in Indian Ayurvedic traditional medicine and other folk remedies. According to Hartwell ( ), the drumstick flowers, leaves, seeds and roots are used for tumors. Roots are bitter, act as a tonic to the body and lungs, and are expectorant, diuretic and stimulant in paralytic afflictions, epilepsy and hysteria. The juice prepared from root is applied externally to heal irritation of skin. The leaves have purgative properties and are applied as poultice to sores, rubbed on the temples for headaches and used for piles. The bark, leaves and roots of the drumstick tree are used as a digestive aid.

6. 13 Moringa Species Slender Trees (India)
M. oleifera - subhimalayan India
M. conanensis – India & Pakistan to near Bangladesh
M. peregrina - Dead Sea to the Red Sea and beyond
Bottle Trees (Southern Hemisphere)
M. ovalifolia - Namibia and Angola in S.W. Africa
M. drouhardii – Madagascar only
M. hildebrantii - Madagascar only
Three Shapes: (1) Tree Shrubs, (2) Bottle Trees, (3) Slender Trees <

7. 13 Moringa Species African Horn Specific Species M. pygmaea
M. longtituba
M. ruspoliana
M. rivae
M. boriziana
M. stenopetala (widely cultivated)
M. arborea

8. Moringa oleifera Most Effective
Dr. Geoff Folkard
Engineering Department University of Leicester
University Road Leicester LE1 7RH United Kingdom
Telephone: +44 (0) Fax: +44 (0)

9. Botanical Details

10. Botanical Details
Drumstick tree is a perennial, evergreen tree that grows up to 20 ft (6.1 m) tall, with a straight trunk with corky, whitish bark. It grows well in hot, semi-arid and humid regions and in well-drained sandy or loamy soils. The tree has tuberous taproot and brittle stem is with corky bark. The leaves are pale green, compound, tripinnate, cm (11.8 to 23.6 in) in length, with many small leaflets. The lateral leaflets are elliptic in shape while the terminal one is obovate and slightly larger than the lateral ones. The fruit pods are pendulous, green turning greenish brown, triangular and split lengthwise into 3 parts when dry. The pods are 1 to 4 ft ( cm) long and 1.8 cm (0.7 in) wide and tapering at both ends. The pods contain about 10 to 20 seeds embedded in the fleshy pith. The seeds are dark brown and the kernel is surrounded by a lightly wooded shell with three papery wings.

11. Botanical Details
Drumstick leaves are good source of protein (Freiberger et al., 1998). The leaves, flowers and pods are used as significant sources of vitamins A, B and C, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, folic acid, pyridoxine, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, calcium, iron, and alpha-tocopherol (Dahot, 1988). Fresh tender leaflets are stripped and used as a leafy vegetable and a potherb that is cooked either alone or with lentils. The young pods, also known as "drumsticks" or "Moringai" by Indian communities, are cooked as vegetable. The pods are sold fresh and/or canned in many Asian grocery stores and markets. The green peas and surrounding white material can be removed from larger pods and cooked in many ways. The pods are considered good sources of the essential amino acids. A compound found in the flowers and roots of the moringa tree, pterygospermin, has powerful antibiotic and fungicical effects (Das et al., 1957). More recently the ben oil has also been shown to be particularly effective in the manufacture of soap producing a stable lather with high washing efficiency suitable for some African countries. The wood provides a pulp that is considered suitable for newsprint, wrapping, printing and writing papers, and for viscose rayon grade pulp for textiles and cellophane (Guha and Negi, 1965). The root bark contains two alkaloids: moringine and moringinine. Moringinine acts as cardiac stimulant, produces rise of blood-pressure, acts on sympathetic nerve-endings as well as smooth muscles all over the body, and depresses the sympathetic motor fibers of vessels in large doses only. The seed oil is used in arts and for lubricating watches and other delicate machinery, and useful in the manufacture of perfumes and hairdressings. The pressed cake obtained after oil extraction may be used as a fertilizer. The industrial uses of the drumstick tree include the use of its wood in paper and textile industries, bark in the tanning industry, and the seeds in water purification (Bhattacharya et al., 1982, Mayer & Stelz, 1993, Palada, 1996; Tauscher, 1994). Aqueous leaf extracts are reported to regulate thyroid hormone and can be used to treat hyperthyroidism (Tahiliani & Kar, 2000). Leaf extracts are also used to treat ulcer (Pal et al., 1995). Reportedly, drumstick leaves and pods also have a positive effect in reducing blood cholesterol (Ghasi et al., 2000), and anti-tumor promoting activity (Guevara et al., 1999). Furthermore, it is an important source of the glucosinolate precursors of the isothiocyanate group of chemopreventives (Daxenbichler et al., 1991) that can inhibit carcinogenesis. Drumstick is also being studied for its anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, diuretic (Caceres et al., 1991, Caceres et al., 1992, Udupa et al., 1994), antibiotic (Eilert et al., 1981), hypotensive (Faizi et al., 1998), and antimicrobial(Spiliotis et al., 1998)properties

12. Nutritional Supplement Erosion Control Mechanical Lubricant
Many Uses of Moringa
Water Treatment
Nutritional Supplement
Erosion Control
Mechanical Lubricant
Living Fence
Lucky Charm
Medicinal Uses
Lung & Body Tonic
Treatment for Epilepsy and Hysteria
Astringent
Digestive Aid
Aphrodisiac
(Ramachandran et al., 1980), WATER (Jahn, 1981, Jahn et al., 1986)

13. Leaves are Tasty!
Picture  (
Receipes  (
*Leaves are tasty when prepared into recipes in small doses

14. Nutritional Comparison
Moringa Compared to 100gm. Edible Portion of Common Foods
from Nutritive Value of Indian Foods by C.Gopalan, et al.
Nutrient
Moringa
Other Foods
Vitamin A
6780 mcg
Carrots: 1890 mcg
Vitamin C
220 mg
Oranges: 30 mg
Calcium
440 mg
Cow’s milk: 120 mg
Potassium
259 mg
Bananas: 88 mg
Protein
6.7 gm
Cow’s milk: 3.2 gm
As you can see, the Moringa tree is a powerful source of vitamins.

15. Leaves: Nutritional Supplement
Gram for Gram Moringa Leaves Provide

16. Marketable Moringa

17. What does this have to do with water treatment?
Now for what you have been waiting for…

18. Seeds: Coagulant
The seeds of the Moringa tree contain a cation, which acts as a coagulant in turbid water
Seed powder is as effective as technical, non-organic water-clarifying agents, such as alum
There are no toxic by-products associated with the use of Moringa seeds as a coagulant
“Purification of turbid surface water by plants in Ethiopia” Eggert Goettsch (1992)

19. Moringa Seeds Seed pods grow green (and can be eaten)
Pods become brown and hard as they age
Pods are filled with white pulp
Seeds are brown, and the kernels are white

20. Seeds: Coagulant Seed kernels are crushed with pestle & mortar
Seed powder is sown into sack cloths
Sacks are tossed into jugs at water collection site
Agitation by transportation disperses the cations to start the coagulation
Water settles at the home
Lucid water can be poured from the top of the container

21. To Treat 20 Liters of Water:
2 grams (2 spoonfuls) of fine Moringa powder
Add 1 cup of water
Shake for 5 minutes
Strain through a clean cloth into bucket of untreated water
Stir rapidly for 2 minutes
Stir slowly for 10 minutes
Settle for 1 hour

22. Moringa Water Treatment Guide
Somewhat turbid water
1 Moringa Kernel = 2 L Treated Water
Very turbid water
1 Moringa Kernel = 1 Liter Treated Water

23. On the Market: Moringa Seed Cake
A natural coagulant used as a replacement for proprietary coagulants to treat both drinking water and waste water
Do not eat this cake!

24. Moringa Water Treatment
Which would you rather drink?

25. Moringa in Tanzania
Combined efforts from Tanzania, Kenya and Switzerland have Moringa Plantations to produce “press cakes” for water treatment

26. So…
How does it work?

27. Moringa’s Mechanism Moringa  Flo polypeptide
Antimicrobial peptides (AMP)
Cationic – overall net positive
Amphiphilic (go into the cells)
Target Disinfectant
Bactericidal
Fungicidal
Tumoricidal
Suarez, M., M. Haenni, etc. “Structure-Function Characterization of Optimization of a Plant-Derived Antibacterial Peptide.” (2005)

28. AMP Mechanisms Leakage of cellular material Transmembrane channel
Depolarization of bacterial membranes
Scrambling of lipid distribution
Damage intracellular targets
Suarez, M., M. Haenni, etc. “Structure-Function Characterization of Optimization of a Plant-Derived Antibacterial Peptide.” (2005)

29. Moringa Treatment
Electrostatic flocculation (accelerated by stirring)
Bacteria attach to colloids
Flocs condense contaminants
“Purification of turbid surface water by plants in Ethiopia” Eggert Goettsch (1992) +

30. One Mature M. oleifera Tree…
Produces 5,500 seeds / year
Treats 7,000 liters of water
Seeds are 40% oil by weight
Total seed weight = ~0.32g
Kernel weight = ~0.22g
“Purification of turbid surface water by plants in Ethiopia” Eggert Goettsch (1992)

32. Music – Agua de Moringa
Such an inspiring plant – somebody must sing of its fame! Coagulant

33. Resources
Kebreab Ghebremichael – Moringa Seed and Pumice as Alternative Natural Material for Drinking Water Treatment (2004)
Markus Schneider “Drinking water treatment in Tanzania using purified seed extracts from the pan-tropical tree Moringa oleifera” (2006)
Mark E Olson - Moringa Home Page
ECHO – Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization
Moringa News
The Miracle Tree – Church World Services (1999)
LokVani-LokVani, Usha Palaniswamy Ph.D., M.Ed. – Purslane Drumsticks (2005)
Trees for Life – Moringa Tree Project
Drumstick India – Exports (2005)
Raveendra Babu and Malay Chaudhuri, “Home water treatment by direct filtration with natural coagulant” (2005)
John Sutherland, “M.oleifera in water treatment”
“Purification of turbid surface water by plants in Ethiopia” Eggert Goettsch (1992)
Suarez, M., M. Haenni, etc. “Structure-Function Characterization of Optimization of a Plant-Derived Antibacterial Peptide.” (2005)