Цвіт моринги

The tree

Moringa oleifera is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree of the family Moringaceae, native to northern India. It is used extensively in South and Southeast Asia. It is also known as the drumstick tree, the horseradish tree and the ben oil tree. The tree can reach a height of 10-12 m. It is widely cultivated for its young seed pods and leaves, used as vegetables and for traditional medicine. India is the largest producer of moringa, with an annual production of 1.2 million tonnes of fruit from an area of 380 km².

The flowers

The flowers are fragrant and hermaphroditic, surrounded by five unequal, thinly veined, yellowish-white petals. They grow on slender, hairy stalks in spreading or drooping clusters 10-25 cm long. Flowering begins within the first six months of planting. In seasonally cool regions, flowering only occurs once a year in late spring and early summer. The flowers are a springtime delicacy in Bengali cuisine. Moringa flowers are typically cooked into chorchori and fritters.

Aroma chemistry

Aldehydes were the major class detected in the fresh flowers, at 64.75%. (E)-2-Hexenal, an aldehyde mostly produced by stressed plants, is the major compound of the fresh flowers and makes up about 59.5% of the total GC-MS chromatogram. Other less relevant compounds in the fresh flowers were 2-pentylfuran (7%), 1-hexanol (5%), mentha-6,8-diene (3.3%) and isopropyl isothiocyanate (3.3%). Isothiocyanates were only observed in the fresh flowers. In the processed flowers the oil was dominated by alkanes, with tricosane the major constituent of the hydrodistilled oil at 18.5%. Heptacosane was the dominant component of the hexane extract, at 46.2%. D-limonene made up about 15% of the chromatogram of the hydrodistilled oil but was not detected in the hexane extract. The hydrodistilled oil of flowers cultivated in Cuba contained E-nerolidol (13.4%), α-terpineol (7.8%) and linalool (4.1%).

Ben oil

The name of ben oil is derived from the presence of behenic acid. The refined oil is clear and odorless, and resists rancidity. The oil can be used as a food supplement, as a base for cosmetics, and for hair and the skin.

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