Meet the Drumstick Tree: A Field Guide to Moringa

Moringa has a bit of a wellness-aisle reputation these days, all green powders and glossy capsules. But long before anyone put it in a bottle, moringa was something people grew in the backyard and tossed into the pot for dinner. To really get to know it, you have to start with the tree.

The tree itself

The moringa most people mean is Moringa oleifera, one of about a dozen species in the Moringa genus. It’s native to the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India, and it has since been planted across the tropics and subtropics of South and Southeast Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

It’s a slender tree with soft, somewhat drooping branches and feathery, fern-like leaves made of many small, rounded leaflets. It’s known for growing fast and handling heat and dry spells well, which is a big part of why it has traveled so widely. Many households grow one right by the door, snipping leaves and pods as needed.

Why “drumstick tree”?

Look up at a mature moringa in season and you’ll see the answer hanging from the branches: long, slim, ridged green seed pods, often a foot long or more. They look a lot like drumsticks, the kind you hit a drum with, and so the tree picked up its most famous nickname. In India, the pods themselves are simply called drumsticks, and you’ll find them sold in bundles at markets and in the fresh produce section of South Asian grocery stores.

Moringa has other nicknames too. It’s sometimes called the horseradish tree, because its root has a sharp, horseradish-like bite, and ben oil tree, after the oil pressed from its seeds, which has a long history of use in perfumery and as a fine lubricant.

Moringa on the plate

Here’s the part we love: in much of the world, moringa isn’t a supplement at all. It’s a vegetable. Leaves, pods and flowers all show up in home cooking.

South Asia

In South India, drumsticks are a classic in sambar, the tangy lentil and tamarind stew, and in avial, a mixed-vegetable dish with coconut and yogurt from Kerala. The pods are cut into finger-length pieces and simmered until tender. Moringa leaves (murungai keerai in Tamil) are stir-fried with coconut and spices into a dry side dish, or stirred into dal and curries like any other leafy green.

Southeast Asia

In the Philippines, moringa is malunggay, and a handful of the leaves is a traditional finishing touch in tinola, a comforting ginger-chicken soup. In Indonesia, the leaves are known as daun kelor and go into sayur bening, a light, clear vegetable soup. Across the region, the leaves are often added at the very end of cooking so they stay tender and bright.

West Africa

Moringa is widely grown in West Africa, too. In northern Nigeria, where the Hausa name is zogale, the blanched leaves are tossed into a savory salad with onions, tomatoes and crumbled, spiced peanut cake called kuli-kuli. In Senegal, moringa leaves are known as nebeday and are cooked into sauces and stews.

How to eat a drumstick (the vegetable kind)

If you pick up drumsticks at the market, know that the outer skin is tough and fibrous. After cooking, you don’t eat the whole thing. Instead, you hold a piece and scrape the soft flesh and seeds out with your teeth, a bit like eating an artichoke leaf. It’s messy, hands-on and completely worth it. The flavor is mild and green, often compared to asparagus or green beans.

From leaf to powder

Moringa leaf powder is essentially just dried, finely ground leaves. The basic process looks like this:

Harvest. Leafy branches are cut from the tree.
Wash and strip. The small leaflets are rinsed and stripped from their stems, which are woodier and usually set aside.
Dry. The leaves are dried out of direct sunlight or with gentle, low heat, which helps them keep their green color.
Mill and sift. Once crisp, the leaves are ground into a fine powder and sifted to remove any tough bits.

The result is a deep green powder with a grassy, slightly earthy, faintly peppery taste somewhere between spinach and matcha. It can be stirred into food or drinks, or, for people who would rather skip the taste entirely, packed into capsules.

A word on buying moringa

Because moringa has several edible parts, it’s worth checking a label for which part you’re getting. A Supplement Facts panel for a botanical should list the plant part, such as “leaf,” alongside the ingredient name. That little word tells you whether you’re getting the same part of the tree people have been cooking with for generations.

Where Brazen fits

Our Moringa Pure keeps it simple: Moringa oleifera leaf, 800 mg in every two-capsule serving, in a vegetable capsule, and nothing else on the ingredient list. It’s the same leaf that goes into tinola and sambar, just without the chopping.

This article is for general information and isn’t medical advice. Talk to your healthcare professional before starting any supplement.