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LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 7 October 2007 Issue

Moringa oleifera is the scientific name of ‘malunggay’ in the Filipino vernacular. It is also commonly known in the English language as the ben oil tree, the horseradish tree, or the drumstick tree.

For those not in the know, malunggay is an exceptionally nutritious vegetable tree and is considered as one of the world’s most useful trees. It grows best in dry sandy soil although it can survive even in poor soil and coastal areas. It is drought resistant and fast growing. Almost every part of the malunggay tree has its own share of usefulness and value.

Malunggay leaves, flowers and pods can be eaten as a vegetable. They have been proven as a good source of nutrition – seven times more potent than the Vitamin C found in oranges, four times the Vitamin A in carrots, three times the iron of spinach, four times the calcium in milk, and three times the potassium of bananas. Pounded up, the leaves can even be used for scrubbing utensils and cleaning surfaces.

They say that various laboratory researches have confirmed that malunggay is a natural energy booster, strengthens the immune system, has antibiotic properties, cures headaches, migraines and ulcers, reduces arthritic pains and inflammations, and restricted tumor growths.

Malunggay flowers boiled with soy milk have always been thought to have aphrodisiac quality. News reports say that studies of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) showed that a steady diet of the malunggay fruit boosts the sperm count of men which improves their chances of fertilizing an egg.

The Los Angeles Times, quoting health book author, Sanford Hoist, reported that “Scientifically speaking, Moringa sounds like magic. It can rebuild weak bones, enrich anemic blood and enable a malnourished mother to nurse her starving baby. Doctors use it to treat diabetes in West Africa and high blood pressure in India…”

Its oil, also known as the ben oil extracted from flowers can be used as illuminant, ointment base, and to lubricate fine mechanics like clocks. For thousands of years, this oil has been used as a perfume base. They say that the ben oil can also be used as a fuel because it “burns with a clear light and without smoke”, according to J. H. Burkill in his 1966 work: “A Dictionary of Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula”.

Malunggay can also detoxify the body given its ability to purify water by attaching itself to impurities and harmful bacteria and allowing them to be expelled as a waste. “The result is long-lasting energy without hyperactivity…a nerve system at rest…a blood system not under pressure…a gland and hormone system in balance”, declared Hoist.

There is a growing global interest in the use of malunggay to address malnutrition because it is readily available and inexpensive. In Africa, it has become popular as a locally produced nutritional supplement for individuals infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. Nursing mothers have shown to produce far more milk and malnourished children gained more weight after the leaves were added to their diets.

Aware of its nutritional and medicinal benefits, India is notably the largest producer of malunggay. India’s ancient system of health care, ayurveda, believes that the malunggay leaves prevent at least three hundred diseases, which fact they say is confirmed by modern science.

Last month, Senator Loren Legarda urged a public campaign for the popularization of malunggay, which she incidentally credited for her youthful look, as an inexpensive means to combat malnutrition in the country.

Malunggay trees are abundant in the Philippines. It may be high time to start a conscious and no nonsense effort to use this gift of nature to provide some wonders for every Filipino.

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