The next time you are served a bowl of sambar, take a careful peek at some of the vegetables floating inside it. If you see something resembling this, you should consider yourself lucky – you’re eating the potential superfood of the future.
‘Drum-stick sambar’ or ‘Murungakkai’ gets its name from the Drumstick tree or Moringa tree; the scientific name is Moringa oleifera. Moringa is one of the sturdiest plants on the planet, able to grow in drought conditions, without fertilizer, in sandy and depleted soil. It takes just six months to reach fruition, during which period it often grows at a foot a month. The adult tree is between 15 to 40 feet tall – and is one of the most useful plants.
Everything from its leaves, to the seeds, seedpods, roots and flowers, is useful for human survival. If you chew the leaves, you get a healthy dose of Vitamins A, B, and C, as well as protein, iron, calcium, and essential amino acids. According to one research article:
…M. oleifera provides more than seven times the vitamin C found in oranges, 10 times the vitamin A found in carrots, 17 times the calcium found in milk, nine times the protein found in yogurt, 15 times the potassium found in bananas and 25 times the iron found in spinach.
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