Moringa, enjoyed by India’s Modi and Cuba’s Castro, is increasingly favoured by the West – but Indians have been eating it for centuries
- Tree’s edible leaves, fruit pods now popular superfood in Western nations but have long been savoured across India
- The leaves have also been used to treat hundreds of diseases and are favoured by India’s PM Narendra Modi in wholesome breakfast parathas
Moringa supplements and powders have been touted as superfoods in the West in recent years, appearing in expensive supermarkets and restaurants, but a typical Indian diet has for centuries included highly nutritious elements of the moringa “miracle” tree, also known as “tree of life”.
Parts of this slender, delicate but fast growing evergreen, common in much of India – in the south most backyards have one – regularly features in curry and sambar, a popular lentil dish.
Almost every part of the moringa tree can be consumed, including its cream-white flowers, which mature into edible pods, and its seeds, leaves, roots and bark. The tree has also been foraged by Ayurvedic medicine practitioners for thousands of years to treat hundreds of conditions and diseases, including diabetes.
There are also apocryphal stories highlighting moringa’s powerful qualities. Mauryan armies conquering regions ruled by Alexander the Great more than 2,000 years ago were apparently helped by a daily dose of a drink made from moringa leaves.
The drought-tolerant tree, native to the foothills of the Himalayas, grows best in a subtropical climate and also appears in other parts of the world, from South America and the Caribbean to Africa and Southeast Asia. In areas where little else grows, perhaps affected by climate change, moringa is a critical nutritional source. In Tunisia, the trees have been used to fight desertification.
