Phytochemicals And Uses Of Moringa

Moringa oleifera was massively grown and promoted by the local media in Uganda in the 1980s as a plant putatively able to cure a number of diseases including symptoms of HIV/AIDS. Industrialists bought the leaves and seeds to use as raw materials and this promoted its being grown by many families. At the moment farmers have uprooted the plant and have remained with a few trees around the compound. Although M. oleifera is native to the sub-Himalayan tracts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan where it is used in folk medicine (Fahey, 2005), it is now widely distributed all over the world (Lockelt, 2000). M. oleifera is referred to as a “miracle tree” or a “wonder tree” (Fuglie, 2001) of significant socio economic importance because of its several nutritional, pharmacological (Caceres et al., 1991; 1992; Fuglie, 2001) and industrial applications (Makkar and Becker, 1997; Foidl, 2001). The leaves of this plant contain a profile of important trace elements, and are a good source of proteins, vitamins, beta-carotine, amino acids and various phenolics (Anwar, 2007). With all those attributes to M. oleifera leaves we wondered why very few people and media are promoting the use of M. oleifera leaves in a country where malnutrition among children below 5 years stands at 15% while 45% children below 5 years are stunted.

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