Moringa, the Drumstick Tree

By Roby Jose Ciju

The booklet, 'Moringa, the Drumstick Tree' is an overview of multipurpose tree, Moringa oleifera, commonly known as the drumstick tree. It is a highly useful tree of Indian subcontinent origin. In this booklet, various culinary, medicinal and commercial uses of moringa plant is dealt in detail.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AGRIHORTICO
• Release date: Mar 18, 2021

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https://www.agrihortico.com

INTRODUCTION

Botanical name of Moringa is Moringa oleifera and it belongs to the monogeneric family Moringaceae. ‘Monogeneric’ means single genus in a family. That is, the family Moringaceae consists of only a single genus with about 14 known species of moringa. However, the most widely cultivated and popular species of moringa is Moringa oleifera.

The Moringa plant is popularly known as ‘the drumstick tree’ because its fruits (pods) look like drum sticks (long sticks that are used to beat a drum). The plant is also known as ‘Indian horse radish’ as it is a native of Indian subcontinent and its roots taste like that of horse radish, a popular vegetable.

Seeds of this plant yield an aromatic oil called Moringa seed oil which is of high economic value. Since Moringa seed soil is very high in behenic acid (up to 8.6%), it is known as ‘ben oil tree’ or ‘ben nut tree’.

Moringa is known as ‘the miracle tree’ and ‘the tree of life’ because of its excellent medicinal properties to cure a wide range of illnesses. Moringa plant is packed with all sorts of nutrients that are essential for human health and has immense potential to fight world’s malnutrition. Every part of the Moringa tree is useful and has great economic and medicinal value. Therefore Moringa is called a ‘multipurpose tree’. In fact, some botanists even consider Moringa as the most useful plant in the world. Moringa seed cake is useful for water purification purposes and hence it is known as ‘the clarifier tree’.