If you live in the United States, there's a good chance you've never heard of Moringa oleifera. Let us be the first to introduce you: moringa, sometimes touted as the "miracle tree," has been studied extensively in the past couple of decades, in light of its reputation in many Asian countries as a panacea plant. Some intriguing claims about moringa have been floated around, though never fully substantiated, i.e. “ounce-for-ounce, Moringa leaves contain more Vitamin A than carrots, more calcium than milk, more iron than spinach, more Vitamin C than oranges, and more potassium than bananas." Although it's hard to believe a statement like that, researchers from the U.S.D.A, Johns Hopkins, and Penn State among other international institutions tell a similar story. Moringa extract has been found to be:
high in antioxidants, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, amino acids; useful as an anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, anti-spasmodic, diuretic, anti-bacterial, and cholesterol-lowering source; usable as a biofuel, fertilizer, water purifier, and the list goes on. Moringa is also drought resistant and can be dried and stored without losing much nutritional value.
The cons? It's hard to get. Buying moringa in extract form in the U.S. involves weaving your way through countless sketchy online stores. It is available through Amazon — though so is fake wolf urine, so we suggest you take that with a grain of salt.
--Justin Cohn / image courtesy of iStock/dangdumrong
