After Hurricane Patricia, it was clear that some of the trees were suffering because of erosion, especially the Moringa peregrina section. Fortunately, some funding for our moringa research was available from a program of my university (UNAM) known by the acronym DGAPA-PAPIIT. This allowed us to buy stone and mortar to put in some very nice stone walls that serve to retain soil, and they make great walkways. The plants are responding well and have grown back very nicely, now a little more than two years after the hurricane.
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You can read the article (in Spanish) in Excelsior, a major national newspaper here in Mexico. More than most “superfood” type reports, this piece highlights some of the nuts and bolts of what makes moringa special, including its isiothiocyanates. You can read the piece here https://www.excelsior.com.mx/nacional/2017/12/13/1141560
This publication brings together material ranging from the correct name of Moringa oleifera to discussions of substances causing potential side effects: Olson, M. E. 2017. Moringa frequently asked questions. Acta Horticulturae 1158. ISHS 2017. DOI 10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1158.4 pdf
The introductory sections of moringa research papers always include a roll call of moringa's uses, and often repeat incorrect information, such as the number of species in the genus (there are 13 currently described species), the wild range of Moringa oleifera (possibly NW India, certainly not outside of India; cultivated in all tropical countries), and nomenclature (the correct name is Moringa oleifera Lam., not M. pterygosperma or any other). Today's post is a quick mention of another error that is very common, and this is to call moringa a softwood. "Softwood" refers to conifers, which on average have softer wood than angiosperms like oak or teak. However, there are plenty of angiosperms with very very soft wood, the papaya tree, say. Moringa spp. are such angiosperms. It is correct to say that Moringa spp. have very soft wood, that they are soft-wooded, or that their wood is soft, bends and breaks easily, and rots readily. But Moringaceae is included within the Order Brassicales within the flower plants or angiosperms, not the conifers, so moringa is not a softwood. So, in summary: moringa is a soft-wooded tree moringa is not a softwood Moringa not a softwood?? Moringa species are soft-wooded trees, which is why woodpeckers can carve into them so easily, making the big hole on this Moringa drouhardii. Local kids, bless 'em, then made the eyes and nose. You can see the phloem fibers in the bark in the eyes, again easy to carve because moringa is soft-barked and soft-wooded. But it is not a softwood (softwoods are conifers, and moringa is an angiosperm). Part of plant drought resistance involves the membranes of pits, the small apertures that connect plant water-conducting conduits. Plants with thicker membranes tend to resist drought better. Given that moringa is so drought resistant, in my lab we are looking at moringa pit membranes. Here are a few photos.
Most moringa journalism I run into comes from rich countries that already have plenty of nutritious food and even well-proven cancer-chemopreventive agents. Readers in rich countries mostly want to know what the plant can offer them. Poor people, especially poor children, in tropical countries don’t get a lot of attention. They certainly don’t make a lot of money for anyone, and so are not anyone’s key demographic. As a result, there is perhaps more attention given to what moringa offers to rich countries, who already have so much, rather than what it offers to folks that need it most. So Tariq Engineer’s recent piece, which you can read here, is important: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/others/leisure/championing-the-moringa-tree/articleshow/59827250.cms Rather than asking how moringa can be turned into a money-making scheme and a superfood for rich people in developed countries, he asks what it can do for underserved people of the tropics. For example, he cites a startling and dismaying statistic that fully one third of schoolchildren in a Mumbai study showed signs of protein malnutrition. Thinking about one in three children of a whole generation with potentially stunted brain development should banish thoughts of trendy superfoods and focus our attention where it really matters.
Tariq highlights that because moringa practically grows itself at low cost in hot, dry tropical climates like that of Mumbai and most of India, then its high leaf protein content would seem to offer a real possibility of addressing protein malnutrition. Because India has such a rich tradition of delicious vegetable-based foods, it would seem fairly straightforward to use moringa to increase childhood protein intake there. Among human rights, perhaps the most fundamental is the right to your mind. If a humble tree can save generation after generation from brain stunting, then this, truly, is worth our attention as a society. Last year, we visited localities of Moringa concanensis in Rajasthan, near the northern extent of the species, and for Garima to covering the genetic diversity of the species, we needed to visit the southern extreme of its distribution. So this year we headed to Tamil Nadu and visited localities near Coimbatore, and in areas several hours farther afield. A special delight for me as to revisit the exact locality that I collected Moringa concanensis in 1998. We had the pleasure of meeting local plant person Arun Mahalingam, who is particularly interested in Caralluma. Caralluma is a very interesting genus in the milkweed and oleander family Apocynaceae. Most species are found in African drylands, but like so many other genera, such as Commiphora, Acacia, succulent Euphorbias, Sansevierias, and indeed Moringa, the succulent milkweeds are found in an arc from southwestern Africa, northeastern Africa and from there to the drylands of India. Arun showed us a couple of remarkable Carallumas plus a lot of other stuff besides, including dramatic tree Euphorbias and lantern-flowered Ceropegias. Have a look at the photos for just a few examples. The Moringa concanensis localities were just as lovely as I remembered them. The steep hillsides are clothed with dense dry tropical forest very much like that that surrounds the moringa collection here in Mexico. Instead of the semi-vining Bursera instabilis there was a green-trunked and semi-vining Commiphora caudata. Instead of columnar cacti, massive tree Euphorbia antiquorum poked through the canopy. Just like here in Mexico, Gyrocarpus is an important forest tree. Garima collected lots of samples for genetic analysis, and we’ll see what she finds.
Cannabis is apparently native to northwestern India, where it occurs as an early successional plant. This means that it is one of the first invaders of disturbed areas, and is then supplanted as the longer-lived plants get established. But with humans disturbing so much of the earth, many of these early-successional plants have vastly expanded their range. They are found around houses, on vacant lots, on the edges of agricultural fields, and in the absence of a lot of work to remove them, inside the fields. The plants are often referred to as weeds. Weeds are plants that are growing where people don’t want them, and they are usually plants that are not native to the area. But sometimes, there are local, native early-successional plants, and botanists sometimes call these “native weeds.”
Here in Mexico we have Wigandia urens, a big-leaved Scrophulariaceae. It is native to disturbed areas but grows all over vacant lots, and even on roofs. Northwestern India has Cannabis. Because roadsides are like perpetually disturbed habitat, field botany in northwestern India inevitably involves wading through lots of Cannabis either to get to a roadside moringa, or to get through the Cannabis to get into the woods beyond. So, here are a few photos of our field work, in which you can see just how abundant the plant is. In 2015 we visited what is traditionally regarded as the area of wild occurrence of Moringa oleifera, in northwestern India, where we discovered wild moringa populations. In 2016, Garima, U. of Delhi PhD student, visited other localities in the area. So, we had good information that there are wild moringas in northwestern India, but what remained was to establish their geographical extent. So, this year together with Garima, we made a massive survey of the plains, hills, and valleys of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and part of Haryana. We were able to determine the ecological associations of the wild moringas, figure out their elevational extent, and make some coarse observations regarding soil preference. The whole story will have to wait for the scientific publication, but in the meantime, here are some photos of lovely wild moringa country. Plant people know that the best way of ensuring the long term survival of a plant collection is to spread the plants around. Disease, neglect, or disaster can decimate a plant collection. If all the plants are concentrated in just one place, they are vulnerable. But plants are easy to propagate, and giving seeds and cuttings to other horticulturists means that if one person loses a plant, then it survives elsewhere. So, getting the moringa collection duplicated in as complete a form as possible is a major priority, but where? The problem is that much of the material in the collection is bound by understandings with the countries of origin regarding how the material can be used. Often the agreements prohibit commercial use of the material or require that it be used in the context of a scientific collaboration. Many botanical gardens were interested in the moringas but couldn’t guarantee abiding by the terms of the agreements. Moreover, some of the rarer moringa species aren’t easy to grow and require experienced horticulturists. India is the logical place for a global moringa germplasm repository. As the center of domestication of Moringa oleifera, the most important species, India has to be the focus of moringa research. Moreover, India’s National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources is famously by-the-book, and in every position to enforce the terms of agreements. Plus they have vast experience in collecting and maintaining moringa germplasm. So I was very excited finally to meet Parimalan Rangan, the NBPGR’s new moringa man, during my visit in Delhi this July. Pari is deeply committed to the use of plant germplasm for meeting the needs of society. He is also an excellent scientist, and his work has included the shocking discovery that wheat seeds can have very different photosynthetic metabolic pathways from adjacent organs (C4 in the seed, C3 in the rest of the plant), a remarkable discovery. We are currently hammering out the details of the materials transfer agreement that would allow sending of material from my university to the NBPGR. So who knows, perhaps next year at this time there will be a forest of moringas from the Collection casting shade on Indian soil.
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AuthorDr. Mark E. Olson is a researcher at Mexico's national university and an expert on the biology of the genus Moringa Archives
November 2018
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