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Moringa Mama in Kingston, Jamaica
One Extraordinary Tree.
It may look pretty ordinary, but it is amazing how God can use the ordinary to do extraordinary things. The tree is called Moringa oleifera, and it is transforming lives and communties around the developing world. God has given us many plants for our well-being and healing, and this is one of them. And this one is being used to combat malnutrition, especially among infants and nursing.
Wikipedia says:”It is considered one of the world’s most useful trees, as almost every part of the Moringa tree can be used for food or has some other beneficial property.”
We are thankful to God for Hephzibah who has introduced many of us to Moringa!! And thank God for her passion for bringing hope to the poor and hopeless in the world.
She and her team from Global Passion Mission launched a Moringa project in Haiti last year, and now desires to do so in Uganda and Kenya. After watching that video, I’m sure you’ll agree the potential is astounding. Imagine the impact it could have in many African countries!!
And, not only developing countries!! We have so many ailments in the west that Moringa could treat, from obesity, diabetes, heart disease, to cold and flu viruses.
And if you buy Moringa products off Moringa Mama, you will not only be improving your own health, but you will be supporting the projects in Haiti and East Africa, saving many from starvation and malnutrition.
SO THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST WIN/WIN SITUATIONS EVER!!!
Amilcar Mascarenhas, 
hannelyn, and 9 others are discussing. 
Ann 4:08 pm on April 18, 2010 Permalink |
Hey,
What’s the name of this tree in Jamaica? Does it have a local name? I recently imported some seeds from the US & have planted some of them here in Jamaica.
But now i’m seeing that it is already here.
Medicine 2:37 pm on July 16, 2010 Permalink |
Many thanks for information…
Hephzibah-Ene Anderson 3:54 pm on July 16, 2010 Permalink |
Always welcome.
Frederick Whyte 4:28 am on October 24, 2010 Permalink |
Yes Ann it is right here in Jamaica check with me and I will give you more info.
hannelyn 6:04 am on November 22, 2012 Permalink |
hi..! i am undergoing a thesis project wherein we will use moringa wood as a source of dye and apply it to a fiber. we read from a source in the enternet that it yield blue dye but we find it hard to extract dye with the said color..we tried different methods already but it didnt. can you please help me with my thesis by suggesting a method or sending me an article about our topic..?..please…..thank you.
Pastor Edwin Osera 5:21 pm on November 28, 2010 Permalink |
Me and my son Pastor Elijah Osera learned about Moringa through Sister Jeanette of Australia and sister Hephizibah (mama Moringa) and got excited about it.My son planted a garden of hundreds of Moringa in his garden and has started a Moringa project in large scale.I also have planted a garden.They are only three months old.Already we have spread the news about Moringa and got some seeds, leaves, and bark from Uganda at a very high price and regularly use it as food for the HIV infected patients, Mulnutrited children, and sick people.Those who have followed our instructions on daily basis report back of improved recovery from various ailments includind high blood pressure and diabetis.We have bgreat hope to save and heal many of our people in a few months when our own plantations will mature,I understand after six months.
segullah 11:13 pm on November 28, 2010 Permalink |
Pr Edwin, that is so wonderful and encouraging to hear. I’m just starting to plant my trees in the garden, and hoping they will do well. I have shared some of the plants with friends in our mission prayer group, so I pray that they will flourish for them. Jeanette
Hephzibah-Ene Anderson 10:20 pm on February 21, 2011 Permalink |
Outrageous Gardens!
“May I become an inexhaustible treasure for those who are poor and destitute…”
Dec
10
2008
Can Moringa change the face of AIDS?
“The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.” Goethe
Tree of the Millenium
Another World AIDS Day come and gone December 1st. Another opportunity to shine some light on a disease whose origins are as murky as the various strategies for controlling it and ending its legacy of multi-generational suffering. According to an ALTERNET article, twenty-five years after HIV/AIDS was first identified, 33 million people are living with the virus. Most are in sub-Saharan Africa but the virus is spreading fast in Asia and Eastern Europe.
• Most HIV+ people don’t know they’re infected
• Women make up nearly 60 percent of new infections in sub-Saharan Africa
•Anti-retroviral drugs reach only 31 percent of those who need them
While some countries have been successful at containing the virus – including Brazil, Uganda and Cuba – others are experiencing soaring infection levels. Swaziland has the highest level of infection – a quarter of people aged 15 to 49.
The good news is that some of the worst-affected countries – Burkina Faso, Kenya, Haiti and Zimbabwe – have recently reduced their infection rates.
But as infection levels continue to rise, international controversies rage over issues such as drug-pricing and the promotion of condom use.
On a local level, AIDS workers have to grapple with social stigma as well as shortages of medical staff and drugs. [Courtesy of Reuters AlertNet 12.2.08]
One tiny light that keeps sputtering in the wilderness of AIDS treatment and improving health is from a still relatively unknown or under-utilized tree, a tree that could offset medical staff and drug shortages. Although native to some of the poorest countries on the planet, where most AIDS or HIV infected populations occur, little is known in the “corporate philanthropy” circles about this completely underwhelming tree that grows on the poorest soils, requiring little to no nutrient inputs and sparse water yet provides a litany of life supporting products unlike any other plant I’ve encountered. This “miracle” tree as it has been called by many in the field, is the Moringa tree, specifically Moringa oleifera. Why miracle tree? Because all parts of the tree are edible and useful and those uses can counteract so much suffering.
Moringa flower
I was first introduced to the Moringa tree by an amazing couple we’ll talk more about in a post or two, Hank Bruce and Tomi Folk of Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Hank and Tomi are the founders and primary facilitators for Hunger Grow Away and wrote what many consider a definitive work on lesser known and higher quality nutritional foods for family gardens and small farms called Global Gardening. Among the memorable and highly energized conversations we’ve had over the years, one topic we always come back to is this tree. There are 13 species of Moringa in the world but for Hank and Tomi and for many thousands of us around the world, the Moringa oleifera contains the answer to many issues that tenaciously squeeze the life out of those living in many countries right above and below the Equator and all around the world.
What follows are just a few of its qualities. And while the US medical-scientific community is not yet on board with some of these uses, I suggest readers scroll all the way to the bottom for a look at all the scientific papers that are coming forth from all around the world verifying these and many other attributes of this scraggly, unassuming, yet powerfully significant tree.
Are you ready?
Experts agree Moringa leaf powder could virtually wipe out malnutrition. The countries with the highest rates of malnutrition are almost all the same countries where Moringa grows best-exactly where it is needed the most.
Moringa leaves, gram for gram, contain 7 times the amount of Vitamin C in oranges, 4 times the Vitamin A in carrots, 4 times the calcium in milk, 3 times the potassium in bananas, 2 times the protein in yoghurt, and an entire multivitamin complex of Vitamin A through Zinc, all the essential ammino acids plus arginine and histidine, two essential amino acids for infants.
Other attributes of the moringa tree include (take a deep breath): cooking oil, high protein animal fodder, disease prevention, ointment, fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, lubricant, dye, plant growth enhancers, food condiment, honey production and honey clarifier, cosmetic grade oil, wind barrier and erosion control, biogas production.
The list of illnesses thus far that have been proven to benefit from Moringa include: anemia, anxiety, asthma, blackheads, blood impurities, blood pressure, bronchitis, cholera, colitis, conjunctivitis, diabetes, diarrhea, dysentery, eye and ear infections, fever, gonorrhea, intestinal worms, jaundice, malaria, inflammation of joints, respiratory disorders, scurvy, skin infections, stomach ulcers, tuberculosis, tumors. And this is the short list.
Moringa seeds contain a cationic polyelectrolyte that has proved efficient in water treatment as a substitute for aluminum sulphate and other flocculents.
And, moringa seeds are being used in the prevention and treatment of AIDS with good results. A study from the 1990′s indicated that there was a connection between forms of malnutrition and the likelihood of contracting AIDS. More recently, information is surfacing about the use of the seeds in directly improving the health of AIDS and HIV infected persons.
So why isn’t the Gates Foundation or the Center for Disease Control talking about this or doing more studies to refine how Moringa could be used? I don’t know exactly. I’m forwarding this blog post to several organizations reputed to deal expressly with finding a cure for AIDS or treating AIDS. Maybe using something as simple and plain ugly as a native tree seed to help end one of the planets most vile pan-demics (outside of hunger) is just not, well, very flashy. Maybe it’s because it wouldn’t cost much to underwrite the growing of these amazing tree shrubs for clinics, schools, orphanages or as plantations of commercial enterprises. Maybe it’s because these other folks didn’t know about it first. But now you will.
By far the most inspiring introduction to Moringa is through the Trees for Life website, a forum for all types of scientific trials, papers, studies that have been done or need to be done. It’s public access and it’s free.
On the Moringa News network you can join a free forum of many years duration that covers everything about Moringa that you can possibly want to know with contacts to some of the most notable names in humanitarian research and appropriate technology and development. Like my friends, Hank and Tomi, most of the folks on the network are doers and sharers. Some are entrepeneurs and those in developing areas are encouraged to look at the economic benefits of growing Moringa. Many are humanitarian workers seeking practical solutions to problems they face. A few are marketing products already developed with Moringa leaf powder or oil. (I use both and I highly recommend the powder as a nutritional supplement.)
Yet when I look at the leaves of Moringa oleifera in photos or in front of me I see something else. I see answers, solutions to so many issues. And the cost is practically nothing. No, the Moringa isn’t very flashy or romantic or complicated. For many who have suffered for years from malnutrition, they did not know that this tree which was growing in their backyards or along a path was even edible. That information had been lost to them until someone from the outside informed them of its many benefits and taught them how to use it. Sadly, it was right under their noses all along and they did not realize how it could have helped them.
Maybe that’s what keeps big money research companies from looking into Moringa more closely: it’s too common. It won’t cost alot to grow. It doesn’t take much care. It doesn’t require high inputs of organic nutrients or water, in fact, it prefers to live on scarcity. Nearly all parts of the tree can be utilized and it grows very fast. And the abundance of its benefits is truly miraculous.
My hope for next year on World AIDS Day? That those with all the millions of dollars will put that money into finding simpler solutions from something that is right in plain sight if they’ll look up from the electron microscopes, out the boardroom windows or away from computer-generated models long enough to see that just over there in the distance may be at least part of the solution they’ve dreamed of all along.
[This begins a long but not exhaustive list of articles and research on Moringa. It is to assist you in seeing the many benefits, encourage you to do more research as well as generate conversations between you and any non-profits, humanitarian organizations, foundations, research institutions or clergy with whom you are connected. The Earth has provided us with an amazing plant to assist us in ending so many aspects of suffering–if we are willing.]
Moringa Book produced by Trees For Life International
“THE MORINGA TREE, MORINGA OLEIFERA, IS CALLED MOTHER’S BEST FRIEND.” Amaranth to Zai Holes; Ideas for Growing Food Under Difficult Conditions: Meitzner, Laura and Martin Price, copyright 1996 by Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, Inc. All rights reserved.
The possible role of Moringa oleifera in HIV/AIDS supportive treatment. Burger DJ, Fuglie L, Herzig JW; International Conference on AIDS. Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. F12423.University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
The challenge of HIV/AIDS: Where does agroforestry fit in? Marcela Villarreal and Christine Holding Anyonge, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Brent Swallow and Freddie Kwesiga, World Agroforestry Centre
Moringa oleifera: a food plant with multiple medicinal uses: Farooq Anwar, Sajid Latif, Muhammad Ashraf, Anwarul Hassan Gilani. (Various research institutions in Pakistan.)
From the Moringa Network documents list:
Experts on nutritional benefits of Moringa: http://www.tfljournal.org/article.php/20051201124931586
The Moringa tree, a local solution to malnutrition? (pdf 501Kb) Lowell Fuglie
Litterature review on Moringa oleifera (pdf 559 Kb) John A. Parotta
Moringa seed and pumice as alternative natural materials for drinking water treatment (PDF, 2 Mb!!!) Kebreab A. Ghebremichael
Illustrated brochure on water treatment with Moringa (PDF, 117 Kb) Lowell Fuglie et Caroline Olivier
The multipurpose Moringa stenopetala tree in Ethiopia (PDF, 232 Kb) Dr Yalemtsehay Mekonnen
Potential of Moringa as a food supplement for urban Africans (in French, 106 kb) Armelle de Saint Sauveur
The food crisis: Moringa’s Green Superfoods Revolution Armelle de Saint Sauveur et Mélanie Broin
Baby formulas enriched in Moringa leaf powder (PDF 39 Kb) Mélanie Broin
Nutriments provided by 30g of Moringa leaf powder Mélanie Broin
Rural nutrition intervention with indigenous plant foods – a case study of vitamin A deficiency in Malawi (PDF 174 Kb) Suresh Chandra Babu, 2000
The Moringa tree, a local solution to malnutrition? (pdf 501Kb) Lowell Fuglie
Poster “Moringa leaves are good for your children’s health” (PDF 307 Kb) Guy A. Zohoun, N.W. Mahougnon (ACFD Bénin), A. de St Sauveur (PROPAGE).
Moringa oleifera, potentially a new source of oleic acid-type oil for Malaisia (word, 88 Ko) Mohamed, A.S. et al., 2003
Abstracts on the role of Moringa leaf powder against malnutrition (PDF 59 Ko) Niambar VS, Girija V, etc.
Moringa leaf production techniques in family farming systems (in French) (PDF, 441 Kb) Armelle de Saint Sauveur
Suggested cultural practices for Moringa (PDF 196 Ko) M.C. Palada and L.C. Chang
The use of Moringa oleifera as a natural coagulant for water and wastewater treatment (Word, 464 kb) Folkard, G; Sutherland J.
Papers published by Dr Muyibi on water treatment with Moringa oleifera since 2002 (Word, 30kb) Dr. Suleyman Aremu Muyibi
Application of processed Moringa oleifera seeds in drinking water treatment (Power point, 329Kb) Dr. Suleyman Aremu Muyibi
“He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything.“- Arabian Proverb
Tassel Daley 6:06 pm on September 23, 2012 Permalink |
I love my trees. I am spreading the good news about this tree.
Buy Moringa 10:39 am on October 17, 2012 Permalink |
Moringa is rich in Vitamin A. It has four times more Vitamin A or beta-carotene than carrots. Hence, it is a weapon against blindness. i really wants to use it…………
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Buy Moringa 6:08 am on October 20, 2012 Permalink |
Moringa tree define as miracle tree. and i love the trees…..
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hannelyn 6:03 am on November 22, 2012 Permalink |
hi..! i am undergoing a thesis project wherein we will use moringa wood as a source of dye and apply it to a fiber. we read from a source in the enternet that it yield blue dye but we find it hard to extract dye with the said color..we tried different methods already but it didnt work. can you please help me with my thesis by suggesting a method or sending me an article about our topic..?..please…..thank you.
Moringa Monterrey 7:02 pm on April 14, 2014 Permalink |
The Moringa is the food of the future, thanks for this info.
Amilcar Mascarenhas 4:57 pm on June 19, 2014 Permalink |
Ola Tassel. Gostei do seu texto. Ha anos que eu venho investigando a moringa. Tenho em elaboracao um mega projecto sobre a moringa, que envolvera componenetes ligas a producao e industrializacao de folhas, flores ,sementes, bolbos para as diversas aplicacaoes.