On the site here, and at The Moringa Home Page, I talk a lot not only about “moringa” Moringa oleifera, but also about the other 12 species of the genus. This is bewildering—which one should you grow and use for your intended application? The short answer is Moringa oleifera, no contest. Though we are still studying the other species, all research shows that M. oleifera hands down wins out over the other species in terms of leaf nutritional yield and quality, antioxidant activity, potential glucose regulatory activity, antibacterial qualities, growth rate, leaf and fruit yield, oil edibility and quality, and a host of other aspects of interest. So that’s the short answer: all evidence points to using M. oleifera for any given application. If you want more detail, keep reading!
A lot of people write to ask which species is the best one for their purposes, so I thought a post on the subject might be of interest to many moringaphiles.
On the site here, and at The Moringa Home Page, I talk a lot not only about “moringa” Moringa oleifera, but also about the other 12 species of the genus. This is bewildering—which one should you grow and use for your intended application? The short answer is Moringa oleifera, no contest. Though we are still studying the other species, all research shows that M. oleifera hands down wins out over the other species in terms of leaf nutritional yield and quality, antioxidant activity, potential glucose regulatory activity, antibacterial qualities, growth rate, leaf and fruit yield, oil edibility and quality, and a host of other aspects of interest. So that’s the short answer: all evidence points to using M. oleifera for any given application. If you want more detail, keep reading!
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A moringa collaborator, Scott Macbeth, PhD Student in Plant Sciences and CUNY Lehman College and the New York Botanical Garden, recently wrote to me asking about Donaldsonia stenopetala, the original name for Moringa stenopetala, and who Donaldson was. This inspired me to dig out the original description, which is worth a read and I thought I would post it here.
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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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