A bigger challenge is in the verification and commercialisation of the health claims. Moringa has been used for treating ailments like hypertension and cardiac diseases, diabetes, hepatitis, obesity and fungal diseases.
EDITORIAL
Welcome back
In that amazing behaviour of ours, most people in this region will scoff at the idea of a plant that does so much, but grows around them. 'Wonder plants' are supposed to be exclusive preserves of India, China and, more recently, the Americas, packaged in shiny leaf-green boxes and marketed as products of age-old traditions of those cultures. People living in West Africa have become conditioned to lack social confidence, unable to believe in their own home-grown knowledge systems. The recent reawakening surrounding the Moringa plant as a reaffirmation of what West Africans have known for ages epitomises this assertion.
Hausa and Wolof communities, among many others, have been growing and using Moringa for decades running into centuries. They have used it for the high nutritional value, making salads, juices and soups from it; using it as medicine. Its seeds are now scientifically proven to be useful in treating water for domestic and public consumptions. Scientists in Nigeria are supplanting water purification chemicals with it. A nongovernmental group began an awareness project tagged "MoringaStorm" in 2006; Moringa farmers' guilds have sprouted in Ghana, Senegal, Benin and Nigeria. The Government of Kano State in Nigeria once ordered all chairpersons of its 44 local governments to set up their own Moringa plantations. It seems like a king-plant just arrived the shores of West Africa and all are rising in obeisance!
Tomes of literature have been generated on the subject. Websites and blogs on Moringa, some with claims bordering on mind-boggling fables, now litter the Web. But like all trends, the craze leans like the Tower of Pissa away from some places it should not ignore. For instance, aside from the successful trial of Moringa for water treatment which has got potentials for mass adoption and usage, not many other of its applications are being studied in order to be marketed commercially. Finance for such studies remains a challenge.
A bigger challenge is in the verification and commercialisation of the health claims. Moringa has been used for treating ailments like hypertension and cardiac diseases, diabetes, hepatitis, obesity and fungal diseases. But even when these claims are scientifically verified, they will need expensive clinical trials, regulatory approvals, and large production/marketing budgets. This will be complicated by still-evolving business environments which can make the cost of innovations prohibitive and a trying time to affordability.
Evidently, there are trying times ahead for king-plant-Moringa! But the stories in this edition show that this is not insurmountable, as Moringa’s tenacity for life demonstrates in its resistance to draught.
--Odoh Diego Okenyodo