Earth News

farmeric January 2nd, 2011

Moringa or malunggay seed powder can be used as a quick and simple method for cleaning dirty river water. The powder joins with the solids in the water and sinks to the bottom. This treatment also removes 90-99% of bacteria contained in water.
Using Moringa to purify water replaces chemicals such as aluminum sulphate, which are dangerous to people and the environment, and are expensive.

Twenty litres of water can be treated in the following way:

1. Remove the wings and brown seed coat and discard any seed kernels that have dark spots or any other signs of damage.
2. Pound the kernels to a fine powder.
3. Add 2 grams (2 small spoons) of powder to one cup of clean water, pour into a bottle and shake for 5 minutes.
4. Filter the solution through a clean cloth into the bucket of dirty water that is to be treated. Continue Reading »

   Tags: Food, honey, malunggay, moringa, moringa oleifera, sugar cane, water purifier
   

   • Environment , Food , Health , Plants , Tips , Water Treatment , honey , malunggay
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farmeric December 25th, 2010

Cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and poultry browse the bark, leaves and young shoots of Moringa. The best diet for pigs is 70% Moringa, 10% Leucaena and 20% other leaves. It is possible for their diet to be 100% Moringa but it should be no more than 30% Leucaena.

The pork from pigs fed on this diet is lean. If trees are intended for animal fodder it is useful to prune them to 4m high, but if they are not they should be pruned to 6m so harvesting for human consumption can be easily carried out.

Livestock diets are improved by the addition of Moringa products!

Tags: livestock, malunggay, moringa

• Food , Plants , malunggay
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farmeric December 20th, 2010

All Moringa food products have a very high nutritional value. You can eat the leaves, especially young shoots, young pods, flowers, roots, and in some species even the bark. Leaves are low in fats and carbohydrates and rich in minerals, iron and vitamin B.

It is particularly useful as a human food because the leaves appear towards the end of the dry season when few other sources of green leafy vegetables are available.

Fresh leaves
Of all the products of the tree the leaves are used the most. They become tougher as they get older so it is best to pick the growing tips and young leaves. Remove the leaves from the woody stem, as this will not soften during cooking. The leaves can be used in the same way as spinach. An easy way of cooking them is to steam 2 cups of freshly picked leaves for a few minutes in one cup of water, seasoned with an onion, butter and salt or other seasonings according to taste.

Dried leaves

A leaf powder can be produced by drying the leaves and crushing or pounding them. You can sift the powder to remove leaf stems. This powder can then be added to Continue Reading »

Tags: Food, malunggay, moringa, moringa oleifera

• Food , Health , Herbal , Plants , Uncategorized , malunggay
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farmeric December 19th, 2010

All of the parts of the tree can be used in a variety of ways. Moringa is full of nutrients and vitamins and is good in your food as well as in the food of your animals. Moringa helps to clean dirty water and is a useful source of medicines. It provides lots of leafy material that is useful when using alley cropping systems. There are many other uses and these will all be described in this site:

Human food
Animal fodder
Water purification
Natural medicines
Fertilizer
Living fence
Alley cropping
Natural pesticide
Domestic cleaning agent
Fuel wood and other uses

Tags: malunggay, moringa oleifera, moringga

• Food , Health , Herbal , Plants , Uncategorized , malunggay
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farmeric December 15th, 2010

How Does Moringa (Malunggay) Grow?

Rainfall and altitude

Moringa requires an annual rainfall of between 250 and 3000mm. It is drought resistant, though in drought conditions it may loose its leaves. This does not mean it is dead and it should recover when the rains arrive. It grows best at altitudes up to 600m but it will grow at altitutes of 1000m.

Temperature

It will survive in a temperature range of 25ºC to 40ºC but has been known to tolerate temperatures of 48ºC and light frosts.

Soil

Moringa prefers neutral to slightly acidic soils and grows best in well-drained loam to clay-loam. It tolerates clay soils but does not grow well if waterlogged.

Tags: malunggay, moringa, moringa oleifera

• Food , Health , Herbal , Plants , malunggay
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farmeric December 13th, 2010

What is Moringa oleifera?

Moringa oleifera, known as Moringa, is native to north India but is now found throughout the tropics. Moringa is also known as horseradish tree, drumstick tree and mother’s best friend. It grows fast and reaches up to 12m. The bark is grey and thick and looks like cork, peeling in patches.

It looses its leaves from December to January and new growth starts in February to March. Moringa produces cream coloured flowers when it is 8 months old and the flowering season begins in January and continues through to March. The fruit ripens from April to June and the pods are triangular in cross section, 30 to 50cm long and contain oily, black, winged seeds.

Tags: malunggay, moringa, moringa oleifera

• Environment , Food , Herbal , Plants , Uncategorized , malunggay
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farmeric December 11th, 2010

If your face shows your age all too clearly, a new wrinkle in cancer research could mean good news for you. Doctors in England speculate that if you have wrinkles, you might actually be protected from skin cancer.

Most people believe that wrinkling indicates sun damage and a higher risk of skin cancer. But, that’s not the whole story. According to Dr. Christopher E. M. Griffiths, professor of dermatology at the University of Manchester’s Hope Hospital, there are different types of skin and they react differently from sun exposure.

Ultraviolet rays from the sun destroy the elastic collagen fibers in all types of skin. If you are wrinkled, that means your skin type repairs itself but doesn’t replace the collagen. If you have smooth skin, on the other hand, your skin is replacing the damaged collagen.

Griffith believes this amount of collagen in your skin could affect your risk of skin cancer in a rondabout way. A substance called transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta helps rebuild the collagen. However, it also suppresses your immune system - and a weakened immune system has more trouble fighting off cancer. In other words, the same process that keeps your skin smooth and firm might also allow cancer to develop. ” This is speculative!” stressed Griffiths.

He first noticed that his patients with basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer, had fewer wrinkles than other patients. Then, a study of over 200 people shed further light. Those with heavily wrinkled faces were up to 90 percent less likely to develop basal cell carcinoma than smooth-skinned people.

Unfortunately, you can’t control the type of skin you have. So, it is simply important that you take the usual steps to protect yourself from the sun. “It’s best to avoid sunbathing and use high factor sunscreen,” Griffiths says.

Now, here’s the natural way to zap your wrinkles with a homemade, scented moisturizer. Just choose an essential oil, such as lavender, lilac, or rose, from a health food or beauty store. You’ll also need to pick up an atomizer from a drugstore.  Then follow these simple steps.

1. Fill the atomizer with 1 cup of water.
2. Add 2 or 3 drops of an essential oil.
3. Refrigerate the solution overnight.
4. Simply spray, and then blot your skin with a tissue.

There goes the folk remedy to have a natural glowing skin

Tags: oriental medicine, skin cancer, wrinkles

• Environment , Health , Herbal , Natural Cures , Plants , Tips
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farmeric September 21st, 2010

You could be getting a lot of less calcium than you suspect. This warning comes from Dr, Robert P. Heaney of the Osteoporosis Research Center at Creighton University.

It means your body can’t absorb the calcium from fortified soy milk as easily as it does from cow’s milk. In fact, you absorb about 75 percent less. The problem lies within the certain chemicals in the soy milk called antiabsorpers. These sees to limit how well your body takes in and uses the calcium.

This problem isn’t going away anytime soon since the FDA regulates calcium as food and not as a drug. That means the government measures how much calcium is in a product, but not how much your body will absorb.

Heaney has three recommendations if you’re concerned about getting enough calcium from soy milk.

Look on the labels. In its natural state, soy milk contains low levels of calcium - only about 10 milligrams (mg) in every cup. And remember, your body absorbs only a small percentage of that. On the other hand, a cup of cow’s milk contains over 350mg of calcium and you can use most of it. So, soy milk producers fortify their products with extra calcium to make them more Continue Reading »

Tags: calcium, Osteoporosis, soy milk

• Food , Health , Osteoporosis , Plants , Uncategorized
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farmeric September 7th, 2010

The Ifugao Honey by Juan B. Dait, Jr,

THE RARE IFUGAO HONEY is not cultured. Pure and unadulterated, it is made from the nectar of wild flowers which colonies of bees gathered in the distant forests of Asipulo town in Ifugao.

Honey season in Asipulo starts from the month of March and ends in August. During these months, swarm of honeybees settle in in the forests of some barangays in Asipulo and busy themselves making honeycombs in the branches of trees. The yearly appearance of the honeybees in Asipulo reminds one of the annual migration to the Philippines of flock of foreign birds ti escape the cold Siberian winds.

The seasonal migration of honeybees in Asipulo is a boon to the natives of the far-flung barangays of the the town who earn good income by gathering the “manufactured” honey and selling the sweet liquid in bottles in the nearby markets of Kiangan, Lagawe, Lamut, and Banaue. The rare honey even reaches the markets of Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Baguio City.

Ifugao honey is ripe for gathering one month after the bees start making beehives. The natives traditionally gather the manufactured honey by smoking to drive away the bees from their hives. The honeycomb is then pulled down and opened to allow the honey to flow out into containers.

There are two kinds of Ifugao honey: the Uyukan and the Alig. The Uyukan bees are bigger and Continue Reading »

Tags: alig bees, asipulo, ifugao honey, uyukan bees

• Food , Health , Herbal , Natural Cures , Plants , honey
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farmeric August 21st, 2010

Under the program dubbed “Utanon Kada Balay”, the DA through its CARAGA Regional Office aims to provide every household with vegetable seedlings or planting material to come up with their own backyard vegetable garden for their persona consumption, as well as feed of their animals such as goats, pigs, chickens or ducks

In 2007, the Department of Agriculture in Caraga distributed 300,000 malunggay seedlings to 100,000 families to help mitigate hunger, fight poverty, and solve the growing problem of malnutrition in the region.

CARAGA, an impoverished region of Mindanao, is considered a priority area because of the high incidence of hunger, as well as malnutrition among pregnant women and children.

The program was established to help promote malunggay culture and thus help boost the national campaign against hunger and poverty.

CARAGA, covers the provinces of Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte.

Tags: fight poverty, malunggay, moringga

• Food , Health , Natural Cures , Plants , malunggay
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