Moringa

About Moringa

Dried leaf powder or extract from a fast-growing tropical tree, eaten as a vegetable across South Asia and Africa. The leaf contains isothiocyanates, flavonoids and meaningful amounts of several micronutrients.

Moringa leaf is a genuine food with a real nutrient profile, which is a different claim from the medical ones attached to it. Human trials on glucose and lipids are small, mostly from India, Africa and the Philippines, with methodological limitations that reviewers consistently flag. The root and root bark are a separate matter — they contain alkaloids with documented toxicity and abortifacient activity.

Sold as

Leaf powder, Leaf extract capsule, Tea, Seed oil, Fresh leaves and pods

Standardised to

Rarely standardised; some extracts state isothiocyanate or glucomoringin content — a product without this marker may not resemble what was studied.

Also known as

Drumstick tree, Horseradish tree, Sahjan, Malunggay

What the research used

The amounts, forms and durations published trials of Moringa actually administered.

When it was taken

Each window says whether a trial compared it against an alternative, or whether it is convention and pharmacology. Most timing advice is the second kind.

In the food catalogue

The whole-food form, where one exists. The evidence for a concentrated extract rarely transfers to the food, or the other way round — these are cross-links, not equivalents.