Witnessed by: Ayurveda · Western · Unani

Moringa (Moringa oleifera), of the Moringaceae family. Fast-growing slender deciduous tree; native range: Native to the sub-Himalayan foothills of north-western India; now cultivated across the tropics of Africa, Arabia and Asia. Globally recognized as shigru, shobhanjana in Sanskrit, sahjan, sahijan, munaga in Hindi, al-ban (البان); the seed habb-ul-ban (حب البان) in Arabic, sahjana in Urdu, and drumstick tree, horseradish tree, ben oil tree in English. The part used is root-bark, root, leaf, seed, pod and expressed seed (ben) oil; the gum. Long, ribbed green seed-pods (the 'drumsticks'), feathery tripinnate leaves, and fragrant cream flowers; the scraped white root smells and bites hot like horseradish, sharply pungent and stinging.

In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.

MORINGA

IDENTITY

Name

Common: Moringa
Scientific name: Moringa oleifera Lam.
Family: Moringaceae

Form

Part used: root-bark, root, leaf, seed, pod and expressed seed (ben) oil; the gum

PROPERTIES

Nature

Taste

how the plant declares itself on the tongue

Ayurveda: pungent (katu) · bitter (tikta)
Western: pungent · acrid (root pungent and acrid, leaf mild and slightly bitter)
Unani: pungent

Temperature

Ayurveda: heating (ushna)

Western: warm (the root hot)

Unani: hot & dry (2nd–3rd degree)

convergence: all {witness_count} witnesses agree it is heating — the fierce horseradish-hot root unmistakable

Affinity

where in the body it travels

Organs / channels

Western: circulation · digestion · joints
Unani: nerves · brain · liver · spleen

PRACTICE

Virtue

Actions

Ayurveda: dipana-pachana (kindles digestion), kapha-vata-hara, shothahara (relieves oedema), lekhana (scraping), medohara, krimighna (anthelmintic) and chakshushya (eye-benefiting)
Western: nutritive superfood and antioxidant, hypotensive, hypoglycaemic, anti-inflammatory and diuretic; the root a rubefacient, stimulant and counter-irritant, the leaf a galactagogue
Unani: muharrik (stimulant, especially of the nerves), mufattih-e-sudad (deobstruent), muhallil (resolvent of swellings), kaasir-e-riyah (carminative) and mudir-e-baul (diuretic)

Cautions

Contraindications: pregnancy — the root and root-bark are a uterine stimulant and emmenagogue and have been used to procure abortion; high pitta and heat states in Ayurveda

Toxicity: the leaf, pod and seed are wholesome as food, but the root-bark carries the pungent alkaloids moringine and spirochin, which in quantity can depress the nerves and heart; the root is used only in small, careful doses

Interactions

Western: antidiabetic agents: additive blood-glucose lowering, risking hypoglycaemia · antihypertensives: additive blood-pressure lowering

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