the advantages of Morinaga Moringa or Sohanjana

 The advantages of Moringa ,Morinaga Moringa or Sohanjana

You must have heard the name Moringa or Morinaga or Suhanjana, if you haven't, then you are ignorant of a very nutritious tree.

Its tree is tall and tamarind-shaped, with small white flowers and long green pods. It flowers from January to April, then these flowers turn into pods and pods remain for 2 months.

There is also a tree in the park in our street. Whenever I saw people breaking its beans, I thought that some sage must have advised them to eat these beans.

 

So let's try to understand in depth all the aspects and benefits of this tree in the light of experts' opinions through this article.

Fortunately, this is our native tree. Its English name is Moringa.

According to the research of Faisalabad Agricultural University Professor Dr. Shehzad Basra, the original homeland of this plant is South Punjab, from where it reached other parts of the subcontinent and South Africa. There were 13 species in Pakistan but now only 2 species are available but the most important among them is 'Moringa oleifera'.

The Suhanjana (Morinaga) tree was first used as food in Senegal during the 1997-2004 drought. Also, taking advantage of the antiseptic properties of its seeds, it has also been used to treat polluted water, with up to 90% success rates.

Benefits of Suhanjana (Morinaga) Tree:

 

According to an article published in 'Hamdard Health', Suhanjana beans/pods have 17 times more calcium than milk, 9 times more protein than yogurt, 4 times more vitamin A than carrots, 12 times more vitamin E than almonds, bananas. Contains 15 times more potassium and 19 times more iron than spinach. Suhanjana leaves are being used as a food in various countries due to their usefulness. Capsules, tablets and food supplements are being sold from its extract in western countries.

Moringa leaves, Moringa plant

Is it possible to cure malnutrition with Suhanjana?

When we asked Dr. Shahzad Basra whether the problem of malnutrition can be solved with Suhanjana tree? So he said that malnutrition cannot be completely eradicated from Suhanjane tree, because these are two separate things anyway. Suhanjana cannot replace wheat, rice, meat, poultry and milk, but the nutrients in it can maintain the energy of the human body. If people suffering from malnutrition use Suhanjana, their physical weakness will be removed. A 50 gram serving of its leaves is enough to meet the nutritional requirements of the day.

That is, a poor man who cannot afford expensive fruits and meat can easily meet his nutritional needs at cheap prices by using Suhanjana.

Moringa tree starts bearing seeds in 2 to 3 years. One tree yields about 3 to 4 kg of seeds and one kg of seed yields about one pao of oil. Its seeds contain 35 to 40 percent oil, which is of excellent quality and equal to olive oil.

Uses of moringa(Suhanjana ) in food

Years ago, once a curry boat came from our neighbor Ayman aunty's house. It was a potato curry with a taste similar to meat, but instead of potato in the broth, chickpeas were added. Missing its benefits, aunty said that earlier we used to eat these beans a lot but now we cook them sometimes. It is very beneficial for bones and women. We ate the curry from aunty's house mistaking it for lamb dish.

Dr. Shahzad said that earlier in many houses, pickled root of Suhanjane was used. This pickle was easily available in the bazaars of Lahore, but now it is disappearing from the cities. In some cities of southern Punjab and Sindh, curry of its flowers is also cooked, but due to its bitterness, it is quickly thrown away, which does not provide full nutrition. The best use of Sohanjane is to eat fresh leaves as a salad, chutney or mixed with a fresh fruit juice, or it can be mixed with green tea to make a tea while its beans are used in curries, lentils. And it can be cooked by putting it in vegetables.

Use of Suhanjana (moringa)  in cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies:

A senior pharmacist attached to Zafa Pharmaceutical, a local pharmaceutical company in Karachi, on condition of anonymity, said that Suhanjana is used a lot in pharmaceuticals, but we do not have much local production, so Pakistan's medicine Manufacturing companies import Suhanjana as raw material from abroad. India is supplying the world with 2.2 million tonnes of suhanjana annually. We can also promote it in Pakistan and its use as a food supplement can be popularized.

Suhanjana as animal food:

We heard about the use of Suhajana as fodder from Sadia and her husband Gul Hassan of Sajawal, Sindh. He told us that we have used it ourselves and are now feeding it to our buffaloes as well. Sadia had told that their buffalo had fallen ill and could not even stand due to weakness.

 

Sadia said that in this trouble we fed our buffalo Suhanjana leaves on someone's advice and after 2 weeks she was able to walk.