The Chairman, Moringa Plantation Management Committee of the University of Ilorin, Dr. Ayokunle Afolabi Toye, has urged Nigerians to be cautious with the use of moringa.
Dr. Toye who said this in an interview with Daily Trust said moringa oleifera is a tropical plant that grows rapidly and has myriad of valuable uses of its components parts (pod, leaves, seeds and roots) which can be used as food and medicine.
According to him, moringa oleifera is highly nutritional and preventive but people tend to abuse it. “One spoonful of powdered moringa herb or 1 capsule of 500 ml a day is advisable for prevention and healthy living. 100 grams of moringa leaves contain as much vitamin as an orange or a mango or an egg. Though it is advisable to be taking moringa as supplement for good health, better still, we need to be careful on how much is appropriate for the body instead of consuming it anyhow because too much of anything is bad”, he said.
He added that efforts were being made to investigate the dosage and period in which a patient can take certain quantity of moringa to treat a particular ailment at a time in order to ensure safety and effectiveness.
“Medical doctors and pharmacists are parts of our research and we are applying highly sophisticated techniques to the examination of moringa herbs. Our concerns are; will the same amount of moringa drugs used to treat diabetic patients be effective for hypertension, is moringa toxic in nature? These and other important aspects are what we intend to find out so as to control the use of moringa”, he said.
