What is Moringa oleifera??

Moringa oleifera, known as Moringa, a plant native to North of India, which currently abounds throughout the tropics.The Moringa tree is also called horseradish, legtree and the mother’s best friend. It grows rapidly and reaches up to 12 meters. Bark is gray and thick and looks like cork, scaly patches.It loses its leaves from December to January and start a new growth February-March. Moringa flowers produced when the cream is 8 months the flowering season begins in January and continues until Mars. The fruit ripens from April to June and the portions are triangular cross section, 30 to 50 cm in length and contain fat, black, winged seeds

Moringa is an important food source in many countries. In India, Moringa pods are widely consumed and plantations exist to produce pods for export, fresh and canned for consumers abroad. In West Africa, Moringa oleifera leaves are used to make sauces. Stenopetala Moringa leaves are the staple food of the Konso people in Ethiopia. Studies have shown Moringa oleifera ceases to be an excellent source of vitamins, minerals and protein: perhaps more than any tropical plant. Many programs use Moringa leaves to fight malnutrition and associated diseases.

Moringa seeds contain a cationic polyelectrolyte that has proved effective in treating water as a substitute for aluminum sulphate and other flocculent. There are two advantages to this property:

1. can be used as a substitute for local production for imported flocculent, thus reducing the cost of foreign exchange reserves of the third world.
2. Moringa flocculent, unlike aluminum sulphate, is completely biodegradable. This may be particularly attractive to developing countries.
   

Oil extracted from seeds is an excellent edible vegetable oil and is useful even in the cosmetics industry. A dual use Moringa as a source of oil and flocculant, is possible because the meal after extraction of oil retains ownership of flocculation.

Other applications of Moringa, including use as animal feed, human growth hormone in plants, green manure, and medicine are currently under research.