Tropentag, September 20 - 22, 2017 in Bonn "Future Agriculture: Social-ecological transitions and bio-cultural shifts"

A Sustainable Natural Resource (Moringa oleifera) in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Areas: An Intensive Literature Review

¹University of Kassel, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Germany
²Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Nutrition, Food and Consumer Sci., Germany

Abstract

Moringa oleifera is a species of the Moringaceae family and mostly available in the tropical and subtropical areas including Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and some African countries. It is widely contributing to sustainable food, agriculture and medicine development as well as sustainable aquaculture. MO is a promising natural food source in the tropics because of its availability even in the end of dry season when other foods are typically scarce. Furthermore, MO trees have been advocated by the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organisation as a “natural nutrition for the tropics”, especially among infants and nursing mothers. This literature review research has been conducted with more than 30 internationally published research articles. It has been already proven that the MO tree is one of the most underutilized tropical crops because of lack of awareness, although it has multidimensional applications and functionalities including antioxidant, anti-diabetics and antibacterial activities. Apart from that, MO leaves extract shows the better results in a comparison study of the antimicrobial activities of sea fish preservation compared to brine solution. On the other hand, the entire MO trees (e.g. leaf, shoot, flower, pod, seed and root) are using in numerous applications including traditional diets. Also, the dried MO leaves can be preserved for a longer period without any preservative and adverse nutritional losses. Hence, drying can be done using the economical household appliance as well as commercial drying techniques. Above scientific evidence gives an indication that the MO grown for economic purposes as well as on a commercial scale, also the creation of employment, reduction of poverty and the rural development. This review research work would deliver the key indications and background for the future research.

Keywords: Economic and sustainable development, Moringa oleifera, natural resource

Contact Address: Md Kamal Hossain, University of Kassel, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Nordbahnhof Str. 1A, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany, e-mail: kamal.forty8gmail.com