Moringa olefiera: Could this be an Answer to our Need for an Alternative to Fighting Drug-Resistance and Chronic Infections?

Abstract

Moringa oleifera Lam. (drumstick tree, horse-radish tree), a member of the family Moringaceae, is a small-medium sized tree, 10- 15 m high, widely cultivated in East and Southeast Asia, Polynesia and the West Indies. It is an angiosperm plant; its various parts have been utilized throughout history as food and medicine [2]. A wide variety of medicinal and nutritional virtues have been attributed to its roots, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds [3,4]. Fuglie [5] reported the many uses for Moringa like: alley cropping, animal forage, biogas, domestic cleaning agent, fertilizer, foliar nutrient, green manure, gum, honey- and sugar cane juice-clarifier, honey, medicine, biopesticide, pulp, rope, tannin for tanning hides and water purification. Moringa oleifera is considered as an important food commodity in certain parts of the globe, which has had enormous attention as the ‘natural nutrition of the tropics’. The leaves, fruit, flowers and immature pods of this tree are used as a highly nutritive vegetable in many countries [6-8]. Plant leaves have been reported to be a rich source of β-carotene, protein, vitamin C, calcium and potassium, which act as a good source of natural antioxidants. The leaves are highly nutritious, being a good source of protein, β-carotene, vitamins A, B, C and E, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, folic acid, pyridoxine, amino acids, minerals and various phenolics compounds [8]. Moringa is truly a rare plant it has the potential to provide nutrition, medicine, oil (body and cooking), and be a purification agent. The whole plant is also edible from the leaves to the roots [9,10]. The Moringa plant is used to combat malnutrition. Moringa’s leaves, flowers, young pods, are eaten as vegetables. The pods contain all twenty essential acids, vitamins, and other minerals [10]. The leaves have been shown to be good source vitamins A (more beta-carotene than carrots), vitamin C (seven times the amount in oranges) as well as vitamin B and other minerals. In addition the Moringa- leaves have three times the amount of potassium provided by bananas, four times the calcium and two times the amount of protein found in milk, and three times the amount of iron provided by almonds (www.moringasource.com) [10]. It is also used to enhance the shelf-life of fat containing foods due to the presence of various types of antioxidant compounds such as ascorbic acid, flavonoids, phenolics and carotenoids [11,12]. The most interesting fact is, this plant consider as a ‘mother’s best friend’ in country like Philippine because of its utilization to increase woman’s milk production [12,13]. Plant and its products are rich sources of a phytochemicals and have been found to possess a variety of biological activities including antioxidant potential [8,14]. M. oleifera contains various phytochemicals, such as carotenoids, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, sterols, glycosides, alkaloids, flavonoids and phenolics [3,12,15]. The antioxidants could attenuate oxidative damage of a tissue indirectly (enhancing natural defenses of cell) or by indirectly (by scavenging the free radical species) and delay the onset or slow the progression of various chronic diseases. Leaves of this plant are known to have various biological activities, including hypocholesterolemic agent [16], regulation of thyroid hormone status [17], anti-diabetic agent [18], gastric ulcers [19], anti-tumor agent [20] and hypotensive agent [21]. Many reports showed that leaves, flowers, roots, gums, fruits and seeds are extensively used for treating inflammation [22], cardiovascular action [23], liver disease [24] and hematological, hepatic and renal function [25]. In many regions of Africa, it is widely consumed for self-medication by patients affected by diabetes, hypertension, or HIV/ AIDS [26-28].