Ignorance of moringa health benefits could never be a blessing.
But I admit that I was ignorant of its medication, food, and industrial benefits despite having three Moringa trees in my courtyard. I could have never heard of Moringa health benefits had I not listened to a story from a military commander with whom I was working for some public service duties.
For privacy purposes, please allow me to call him Mr. X.
I remember precisely, it was a chilly night in December, and we were enjoying bonfire while eating barbecue. He was telling me, “Do you know which plant is called a miraculous tree in the world?”
Admittedly, I didn’t know that.
I was blank.
“No, I don’t know,” I said.
He told me that it is Moringa tree. It is called “Suhanjna” in Urdu, Punjabi, and Seraiki and it is prevalent in South Punjab of Pakistan, India, and South Africa. It is called a “miracle tree” and, according to ancient ayurvedic medicine an elixir for at least 300 diseases.
He told that when he was posted on a mission in some African country, he was suffering from the dysfunctional liver. His liver examination reports were not satisfactory, and his liver was being destroyed fast. One of the folk doctors in that African country suggested him to take moringa oleifera leaves. He started taking his proposed dose. After a couple of months, he got him tested, and to his surprise, his liver was functioning much better than before taking the moringa leaves. Now his liver was working as good as it had never suffered from any disease.
The story was interesting.
However, I had neither seen his reports nor was sure whether moringa health benefits were real or just a fluke. I did not start taking moringa leaves for one reason or the other. Last month, I saw one of my friends taking Moringa leaves and heard moringa health benefits from him. I also started to take moringa leaves. However, when I began researching on moringa oleifera leaves, I discovered more moringa health benefits than were being claimed. However, here we will discuss the most important ones.
I also discovered that many Moringa health benefits have been proved in various scientific studies. When we see at the chemical examination of moringa oleifera leaves, they seem to contain more moring health benefits than being promoted. According to Chemistry Department, De La Salle University, Philippines.
“Chemical investigation of the ethanol extract of the leaves of Moringa oleifera Lam. Yielded lutein (1), β-carotene (2), phytyl fatty acid ester (3), polyprenol (4), chlorophyll a (5), β-sitosterol (6), triacylglycerols (7), fatty acids, fatty alcohols, and saturated hydrocarbons.”
For the reasons, benefits of moringa surpass than those of other healthy food items like spinach, carrots, milk, yogurt and oranges.
Various studies have proved that Moringa dried leaves contain at least 79 chemical properties. However, there is every chance that we may be able to some more ingredients with more examinations. These 79 chemical properties are given below:
Sr. No. | Chemical Properties of Moringa Oleifera Leaves | Amount |
---|---|---|
1 | Protein | 30.30% |
2 | Carbohydrates | 37.87% |
3 | Moringa has metabolizable Energy | 2625 (Kcal/Kg) |
Essential Amino Acids (19) | ||
1 | Arginine | 1.87% |
2 | Serine | 1.09% |
3 | Aspartic Acid | 1.43% |
4 | Glutamic | 2.53% |
5 | Glycine Acid | 1.53% |
6 | Threonine | 1.36% |
7 | Alanine | 3.03% |
8 | Tyrosine | 2.65% |
9 | Proline | 1.20% |
10 | HO-Proline | 0.09% |
11 | Methionine | 0.29% |
12 | Valine | 1.41% |
13 | Phenylalanine | 1.64% |
14 | Isoleucine | 1.18% |
15 | Leucine | 1.96% |
16 | Histidine | 0.72% |
17 | Lysine | 1.64% |
18 | Cysteine | 0.01% |
19 | Tryptophan | 0.49% |
Minerals | ||
1 | Calcium | 3.65% |
2 | Phosphorus | 0.30% |
3 | Magnesium | 0.50% |
4 | Potassium | 1.50% |
5 | Sodium | 0.16% |
6 | Sulfur | 0.63% |
7 | Zinc | 31 mg/kg |
8 | Copper | 8.25% |
9 | Manganese | 87 mg/kg |
10 | Iron | 490 mg/kg |
11 | Selenium | 363 mg/kg |
12 | Boron | 50 mg/kg |
Fatty Acids (26) | ||
1 | α-Linolenic acid | 44.57% |
2 | Heneicosanoic | 14.41% |
3 | G-linolenic | 0.20% |
4 | Palmiteic | 0.17% |
5 | Carpic Acid | 0.07% |
6 | Ether extract | 6.50% |
7 | Lauric | 0.58% |
8 | Myritic | 3.68% |
9 | Palmitoleic | 0.17% |
10 | Margaric | 3.19% |
11 | Stearic | 2.13% |
12 | Oleic | 3.96% |
13 | Vaccenic | 0.36% |
14 | Linoleic | 7.44% |
15 | Arachidic | 1.61% |
16 | Behenic | 1.24% |
17 | Tricosanoic | 0.66% |
18 | Lignoceric | 2.91% |
19 | Total saturated fatty acids | 43.31% |
20 | Total mono unsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) | 4.48% |
21 | Total poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) | 52.21% |
22 | Total Omega-6 fatty acids | 7.46% |
23 | Total Omega-3 fatty acids | 44.57% |
24 | PUFA: SFA | 1.21% |
25 | n-6/n-3 | 0.17% |
26 | PUFA: MUFA | 14.80% |
Vitamins | ||
1 | Vitamin E | 77 mg/100 |
2 | Beta-carotene | 18.5 mg/100g |
3 | Vitamin A | 0.10% |
Also contains Vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6, B7, C, K, and D | Various quantities | |
Fibers | ||
1 | Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) | 11.40% |
2 | Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) | 8.49% |
3 | Acid DetergentLlignin (ADL) | 1.80% |
4 | Acid Detergent Cellulose (ADC) | 4.01% |
Others | ||
1 | Condensed Tannins | 3.20% |
2 | Polyphenols | 2.02% |
3 | Lutein | 53.60% |
4 | β-sitosterol total phenolic | 90mg/g |
Moringa health benefits are no more derived individual experiences of the people or from secret lockers of the folk doctors. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has listed the following powerful ingredients of Moringa leaves.
The slight differences in the results may be due to Moringa variety, environment, drying methods, storing procedures, etc. However, the USDA lists the most important ingredients highlighted in other studies above. The nutrient quantities below are against different grams of Moringa leaves powder:
Sr. No. | Nutrient | Unit | 1Value per 100 g | 1 cup, chopped = 21.0g |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Water | g | 78.66 | 16.52 |
2 | Energy | kcal | 64 | 13 |
3 | Energy | kJ | 268 | 56 |
4 | Protein | g | 9.4 | 1.97 |
5 | Total lipid (fat) | g | 1.4 | 0.29 |
6 | Ash | g | 2.26 | 0.47 |
7 | Carbohydrate, by difference | g | 8.28 | 1.74 |
8 | Fiber, total dietary | g | 2 | 0.4 |
Minerals | ||||
9 | Calcium, Ca | mg | 185 | 39 |
10 | Iron, Fe | mg | 4 | 0.84 |
11 | Magnesium, Mg | mg | 42 | 9 |
12 | Phosphorus, P | mg | 112 | 24 |
13 | Potassium, K | mg | 337 | 71 |
14 | Sodium, Na | mg | 9 | 2 |
15 | Zinc, Zn | mg | 0.6 | 0.13 |
16 | Copper, Cu | mg | 0.105 | 0.022 |
17 | Manganese, Mn | mg | 1.063 | 0.223 |
18 | Selenium, Se | µg | 0.9 | 0.2 |
Vitamins | ||||
19 | Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid | mg | 51.7 | 10.9 |
20 | Thiamin | mg | 0.257 | 0.054 |
21 | Riboflavin | mg | 0.66 | 0.139 |
22 | Niacin | mg | 2.22 | 0.466 |
23 | Pantothenic acid | mg | 0.125 | 0.026 |
24 | Vitamin B-6 | mg | 1.2 | 0.252 |
25 | Folate, total | µg | 40 | 8 |
26 | Folate, food | µg | 40 | 8 |
27 | Folate, DFE | µg | 40 | 8 |
28 | Vitamin A, RAE | µg | 378 | 79 |
29 | Vitamin A, IU | IU | 7564 | 1588 |
30 | Amino Acids | |||
31 | Tryptophan | g | 0.144 | 0.03 |
32 | Threonine | g | 0.411 | 0.086 |
33 | Isoleucine | g | 0.451 | 0.095 |
34 | Leucine | g | 0.791 | 0.166 |
35 | Lysine | g | 0.537 | 0.113 |
36 | Methionine | g | 0.123 | 0.026 |
37 | Cystine | g | 0.14 | 0.029 |
38 | Phenylalanine | g | 0.487 | 0.102 |
39 | Tyrosine | g | 0.347 | 0.073 |
40 | Valine | g | 0.611 | 0.128 |
41 | Arginine | g | 0.532 | 0.112 |
42 | Histidine | g | 0.196 | 0.041 |
43 | Alanine | g | 0.705 | 0.148 |
44 | Aspartic acid | g | 0.92 | 0.193 |
45 | Glutamic acid | g | 1.035 | 0.217 |
46 | Glycine | g | 0.517 | 0.109 |
47 | Proline | g | 0.451 | 0.095 |
48 | Serine | g | 0.414 | 0.087 |
Flavonols | ||||
49 | Isorhamnetin | mg | 0.4 | 0.1 |
50 | Kaempferol | mg | 6 | 1.2 |
51 | Quercetin | mg | 16.6 | 3.5 |
Some ingredients of Moringa Oleifera leaves like condensed tannins 3.12% may not be a nutrition factor. However, the quantity of such chemicals is so negligible that can't harm the human health. Even studies conducted on children taking moringa have shown no side effects. Furthermore, when you dry Moringa leaves, such elements are reduced to 1.4% which does not limit moringa health benefits.
It is one of the top questions that the visitors interested in moringa health benefits have been raising. There is no set quantity to be taken. In one experiment in Africa, the biologists administered one and a half teaspoon of moringa dried leaves but not a single side effect was observed.
Some experts on moringa suggest taking at least 3 grams of moringa dried leaves when you are intending to use it as a medicine. However, when you are planning to consume it as a nutrition supplement, you may take up to 50 grams every day.
However, we suggest not only a moderation but also consulting of your local physician, especially if you are already on some medication. It is even better to print this page and shows to your physician to tell what chemical properties your moringa leaves are containing and how can these ingredients interact with your medicines already being taken.
I initially started with one full teaspoon of moringa dried leaves before the breakfast in the morning. But within a couple of days I increased the quantity to one full tablespoon. Within 24 hours I felt a lot of improvement in my bowel movement. I felt more energy and immunity.
Estimatedly four gram moringa leaves powder fills a tablespoon which is sufficient for medicinal purposes. while increasing my dose slowly, I have not seen any side effects so far, but instead enjoying some initial moringa health benefits.
By: Saqib Ali Ateel
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Water treatment using moringa oleifera seeds
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