Description

Moringa oleifera, the drumstick tree, is a fast-growing, deciduous tree of the family Moringaceae, native to the sub-Himalayan foothills of northern India — particularly the Himalayan terai and Shivalik hills — now widely cultivated across tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific as a high-nutrient food and traditional medicine plant. Virtually every part of the tree is documented for food or medicinal use — leaves, pods, seeds, roots, flowers, and bark. The gum exudate — Sahijan Gond — collects naturally from wounds or incisions in the bark as a reddish, water-soluble polysaccharide. In traditional South Asian folk medicine, the gum is incorporated in preparations for sore throat, skin applications, and as an absorbent demulcent. Moringa gum is less commercially prominent than the seed oil or leaf powder but is documented in ethnobotanical surveys across Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.