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Plants & People: The Intersection of Botany and Human Experience

M. oleifera Pod

The pods of M. oleifera are picked and consumed similar to green beans when green. When dry and brown, they are harvested to extract oil from their seeds.

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The superfood, Moringa oleifera, has a rich history deeply rooted in its native Indian domestication and usage. Also widely known as “The Miracle Tree”, M. oleifera is often recognized by its white flowers and long-seed pods that are greatly sought after. Not only does M. oleifera provide an incomparable food source and multipurpose oil through its pods, but all parts of the plant may be used and consumed. The versatility of this plant is venerated in Indian culture where its consumption and, most importantly, medicinal usage involve all parts of the plant. Due to its spread across other countries, the species and its utilization have evolved to suit individual cultures and their own domestication desires. In the Philippines and North and South Africa, its nutritional value is greatly relied upon to treat malnourishment, purify water, and support community infrastructure while the Indian native medicinal usage is less emphasized and not well known. The Americas, on the other hand, have increasingly toyed with the novel M. oleifera ‘organic-superfood’ craze that tends to remove emphasis from its cultural value and multipurpose utilization to instead fawn over its supposed energy boosts, skin care implementations, and uses in its powder – likely less effective and increasingly more expensive than the original. Though its original purpose grows increasingly colonized, the domestication ventures globally of this superfood continue the legacy of the Moringa oleifera species itself – marked genetic increases in energy production associated with plastic to nucleus gene duplications. As each nation tends to and selects for various aspects of this energy contribution – whether for the nutritional, medicinal, or vanity value – the variation in these M. oleifera may grow towards eventual speciation. George Vetushko and Lauren Guevara #drumsticktree
Contents of this tag:
1. Moringa oleifera: Domestication Histories and Emerging Deviations from Indian Origin The superfood, Moringa oleifera, has a rich history deeply rooted in its native Indian domestication and usage. Also widely known as “The Miracle Tree”, M. oleifera is often recognized by its white flowers and long-seed pods that are greatly sought after. Not only does M. oleifera provide an incomparable food source and multipurpose oil through its pods, but all parts of the plant may be used and consumed. The versatility of this plant is venerated in Indian culture where its consumption and, most importantly, medicinal usage involve all parts of the plant. Due to its spread across other countries, the species and its utilization have evolved to suit individual cultures and their own domestication desires. In the Philippines and North and South Africa, its nutritional value is greatly relied upon to treat malnourishment, purify water, and support community infrastructure while the Indian native medicinal usage is less emphasized and not well known. The Americas, on the other hand, have increasingly toyed with the novel M. oleifera ‘organic-superfood’ craze that tends to remove emphasis from its cultural value and multipurpose utilization to instead fawn over its supposed energy boosts, skin care implementations, and uses in its powder – likely less effective and increasingly more expensive than the original. Though its original purpose grows increasingly colonized, the domestication ventures globally of this superfood continue the legacy of the Moringa oleifera species itself – marked genetic increases in energy production associated with plastic to nucleus gene duplications. As each nation tends to and selects for various aspects of this energy contribution – whether for the nutritional, medicinal, or vanity value – the variation in these M. oleifera may grow towards eventual speciation. George Vetushko and Lauren Guevara #drumsticktree