REV222 Moringa

Moringa is sold badly. The category is built on a stack of comparisons — seven times the vitamin C of an orange, three times the potassium of a banana — and most of them do not survive contact with a nutrition database. We are not going to repeat them. What moringa actually is, is more interesting than what it is marketed as.

It is a remarkably protein-dense leaf: around 9 g of protein per 100 g fresh, roughly twice what you get from yoghurt, which is unusual for anything green. It is a strong source of vitamin A, calcium, iron and magnesium — in the same class as spinach and kale, which is a compliment. And it carries a distinctive chemistry, glucomoringin, that most common vegetables simply do not have.

The oil is the quiet star. Moringa seed oil is 65–78% oleic acid with an unusual fraction of behenic acid — "ben oil" — which makes it exceptionally slow to oxidise. It does not go rancid quickly, which is why it was used for centuries to lubricate watches. Pakistani moringa landraces are characterised in the literature as a potential source of premium-quality oil, which is a reasonable thing to build a business on.

And it grows here. Sohanjna is drought-tolerant once established, harvestable every 35–40 days, and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council has demonstrated it growing on brackish water in Thar — that is, on water that will not support a conventional crop at all.