I read about moringa for the first time on this forum at the very first post. With many years in the DR, I have had quite a fascination for plants, butterflies and on a 3,000 square meter of land I have been for months collecting different plants, and flowers (close to 150 different species so far). Of course reading of the benefits of the moringa I decided to have a few plants to add to my ongoing project. I was surprised that many of my Dominican and Haitian friends knew of the plant. I was taken to this huge tree, higher that the house growing in a Boca Chica backyard. I had to have it, and my friend quickly cut a long branch of the tree in 10 different pieces, took seeds from the pods. We stuck the 10 branches into the ground, planted the seeds, and to my fascination, every stick made leaves and every seed became tree very quickly.
A friend of mine who has been following my project with admiration, offered me a book for Xmas called Moringa Nature' s Medicine Cabinet by Sanford Holst. It goes into details on the medicinal properties, the preparation of the plant, how to grow and harvest, some of those well described on this forum. It however address another quality of this plant which has not been addressed here and which I think is worth mentioning. Moringa for water purification. "In developed countries, water authorities use chemicals such as aluminum sulphate to solidify impure particles which are then removed at the water treatment works. In developing countries chemicals like this are scarce and expensive, and therefore not widely used. In stark contrast, powder made from Moringa seeds has been found to be as effective as these chemicals". He goes on and describes the simple way to purify the water "with this method the rate of infection from water can be reduced by 80-98%". I must ad a quote which came right after the water purification chapter:
"Then Moses led the people of Israel on from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the wilderness of Shur and were there three days without water. Arriving at Murah, they could not drink the water because it was bitter. "Then the people turned against Moses. Must we die of thirst? they demanded. "Moses pleaded with the Lord to help them, and the Lord showed them a tree to throw into the water, and the water became sweet." Exodus 15:22-7
The author, Sanford Holst raises a small plantation of Moringa trees at his home in Sherman Oaks, California. I recommend this book.
My moringa trees are doing great, thriving along my impressive plant collection. I was so impressed with this amazing tree that I renamed my piece of land with the villa which I am building on it "Villa Moringa"
he planted few trees in his home garden, thou. darn, i just wanted to try those pods. maybe i should venture to the farm and get at least a bit of a root. i like horseradish...
