What are the benefits of Moringa?
Since the Moringa tree contains many important nutrients for the body, there are many benefits of Moringa in preventing infection or helping to treat some health conditions. The following are the most important benefits of Moringa and its uses among people:
Benefits of Moringa for the stomach
One of the benefits of Moringa is that it helps treat stomach disorders, as consuming Moringa extract helps treat some digestive disorders that affect the stomach, such as constipation, gastritis, and ulcerative colitis, as a result of it containing a high amount of B vitamins that aid digestion.
In addition to the antibacterial and antifungal properties of Moringa herb that help maintain the balance of beneficial bacteria in the digestive system, and its anti-inflammatory properties.
Benefits of Moringa for the Nerves
Moringa helps maintain healthy nerves and cognitive abilities due to its antioxidant properties. Its vitamin C and vitamin E content reduces nerve damage caused by oxidation. The plant extract can also regulate levels of neurotransmitters responsible for mood, memory, and mental health.
There are some studies on the benefits of Moringa and its role in treating Alzheimer's disease.
Benefits of Moringa for Bones
Moringa is a good source of calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium, which the body needs to maintain healthy bones. This tree also contains the amino acid lysine, which helps in the absorption of calcium. The flavonoids found in moringa also help prevent osteoporosis because they stimulate the cells that build bones.
Also, one of the benefits of Moringa for joints is getting rid of the pain associated with arthritis due to its anti-inflammatory properties.
Benefits of Moringa for Weight Loss
Moringa is believed to help with weight loss by increasing the body's sensitivity to insulin and balancing hormones, based on some animal experiments and human studies that included nutritional supplements containing moringa or moringa powder.
Moringa tea also contributes to weight loss by stimulating metabolism and burning calories, balancing blood sugar levels, and increasing energy levels.
Benefits of Moringa for the skin
Moringa contributes to maintaining healthy skin because it contains a high percentage of antioxidants and various vitamins, such as vitamin A, B vitamins, and vitamin C, which enhance the skin’s softness, moisture, and texture, and protect it from environmental damage and sunlight.
Applying moringa oil to the skin helps tighten it, absorb oils and dirt, kill bacteria or viruses on the skin, and treat acne, athlete's foot, and warts.
Regular use of Moringa oil helps restore the skin’s natural moisture balance. Moringa also helps treat and heal wounds, reduce inflammation and infection, or the appearance of scars or ulcers.
Benefits of Moringa for Hair
Moringa oil helps get rid of dandruff, and the seeds help increase healthy hair growth and help repair damaged hair follicles. The source of these benefits of moringa for hair is that it is rich in iron, zinc, and essential amino acids.
Benefits of Moringa for Sugar
Moringa tree helps diabetics maintain blood sugar levels, due to its content of chlorogenic acid, which helps reduce the levels of glucose and protein in the urine.
The isothiocyanate compound found in Moringa leaves helps protect against diabetes. It has also been observed in some animal studies that Moringa seed powder helps increase the effectiveness of antioxidants and enzyme production in the liver, pancreas, and kidneys of diabetic rats compared to other rats, and reduces the level of fasting blood sugar, glycated hemoglobin or glycosylated hemoglobin, immunoglobin A, and immunoglobulin.
Benefits of Moringa for Women
Moringa herb helps relieve the symptoms of permanent menopause. It is believed that green moringa leaves have the ability to relieve menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and sleep problems when taken for three months.
Benefits of Moringa for Men
Moringa seeds contribute to men's sexual health, as they increase sexual desire in both males and females. It was also used in the past to treat erectile dysfunction.
Benefits of Moringa for Children
The potential benefits of moringa include improving weight in children, especially in cases of children who suffer from malnutrition or the body's inability to absorb essential nutrients, but more research is still needed to confirm the benefits of moringa for children.
Other benefits of Moringa tree
Additional benefits of Moringa include:
Lowering blood pressure: Moringa contains a group of compounds that help prevent the thickening of the arteries that leads to high blood pressure. The most important of these compounds are isothiocyanate, niaziminin, and quercetin.
Maintaining heart health: The antioxidant property of moringa extract helps prevent damage to the heart muscle, and it also contributes to preventing heart disease by reducing the level of harmful cholesterol known as (LDL) in the blood.
Improving vision: Moringa contains some antioxidants that help maintain and improve eye health, in addition to its ability to stop the expansion of blood vessels in the retina, which prevents their malfunction.
Kidney Disease Prevention: Moringa extract contains high amounts of antioxidants that may help eliminate kidney, ureter, and bladder stones.
Liver protection: Moringa helps protect the liver from damage because it contains polyphenols, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Preventing the development of edema: Edema is defined as the accumulation of fluids in certain tissues in the body, and due to the anti-inflammatory effect of moringa, it works to prevent edema from developing.
Cancer prevention: Moringa, especially the roots, contains some properties that help prevent the development of cancer. For example, eugenol helps prevent skin, colon, and prostate cancer. Niazimicin helps inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
Reducing the risk of infection: Moringa contains antifungal, antibacterial, and antimicrobial properties that may help reduce or treat some types of infections.
Asthma treatment: Using Moringa helps improve lung function, reduces the severity of asthma attacks, and prevents bronchial constriction.
Treating anemia: Moringa, especially its extract, contains properties that help increase iron absorption, thus increasing the number of red blood cells and treating anemia.
What is the method of using Moringa?
All parts of the Moringa tree can be eaten, including the leaves, flowers, stems, roots, and seeds, but the seeds, oils, and powder are the most commonly used parts to obtain the benefits of Moringa.
Some people resort to cooking moringa because cooking reduces the content of phytate compounds that prevent the body from benefiting from other nutrients. Moringa may also be found in the markets in one of the following forms:
Moringa powder
It consists of finely ground leaves, has a bitter taste that may tend slightly towards sweetness, and contains a high percentage of plant compounds, proteins, calcium, beta-carotene, vitamin C, potassium, and vitamin A.
The powder can be added to smoothies, iced drinks or yogurt in the amount of 2-6 grams, as it helps increase the absorption of some minerals and amino acids. Sometimes the powder may consist of ground seeds.
Moringa Capsules (Dietary Supplements)
Capsules contain leaf powder or extract, and it is preferable to take the extract because it increases the availability and absorption of nutrients.
Moringa tea
It is made from Moringa leaves, and it may taste like dirt, so some people add cinnamon or fragrant basil to it. It can be drunk before bed, because it does not contain caffeine, but it may give a feeling of energy because it is rich in auxiliary enzymes such as NADH, which increases energy production in cells, and also helps strengthen memory, cognitive abilities, and senses.
Moringa oil
Also known as ben oil or behen oil due to the behenic acid found in it, moringa oil is made from its seeds, not from its leaves or flowers, so it has special benefits and uses. It can be used in cooking because it contains a high percentage of proteins and healthy fats such as aloeic acid and tocopherols, which the body converts into vitamin E, or as an aromatic oil in hair and skin preparations to moisturize or cleanse them.