Moringa, the Miracle Tree: Can it really fight malnutrition and clean water?

Region 3 EPA Volunteer Monitoring Conference August 7-8, 2015 by Ishan Shukla

(Junior at Milton High School and Neponset River Watershed Volunteer in Boston, MA)

Rev 8/4/15

How I First Heard About the EPA: The Simpsons Movie

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Thankfully, no guns were pointed at me during my visit to the Virginia EPA in February. I survived my PowerPoint presentation!

* Technically, the VA EPA is called the Virginia DEQ

Agenda

Benefits of the Moringa Tree

Can Moringa Really Clean Water?

Why I Suggest the EPA Research Moringa Further

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Helpful Life Advice about Changing the World

Pick the 2% You Want to Change And Give It Your 100%

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I Found My 2% when I was looking for volunteer work at a local hospital

Late 2013, I met Dr. Andree LeRoy, physician at Spaulding Rehab Hospital in Boston.

Dr. LeRoy also works with Partners in Health in Haiti.

She said the Moringa Tree grows plentifully in Haiti and is known for its nutritional benefits. She suggested that I research Moringa as a volunteer project.

PIH Photo from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partners_In_Health; Spaulding photo from Spaulding website. 5

Part 1: Benefits of the Moringa Tree

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Benefit #1: Moringa Used by WHO to Fight Malnutrition (also supported by UNICEF/WorldVision; NIH named it “plant of the year” in 2008)

7 Source: http://crazyjamaica.com/?page_id=4455

Benefit #2: Coincidentally Grows in Areas with High Malnutrition

8 Note: Can also grow year-round in Southern US: CA, TX, AZ, FL (there are some Moringa Farms in the US)

Benefit #3: Hardy Plant and Drought-Resistant

9 Tanzania

Haiti India

Kenya

Photo obtained from Google Images

Benefit #4: Can be Cooked in Many Ways

Photo obtained from Google Images 10

My mom grew up eating Indian “Drumstick” Curry (fruit of the Moringa tree, known as Sahijan in Hindi)

Great Moringa recipes exist around the world, e.g. Corn & Moringa soup

Moringa Powder Used to Make Porridge

11 Photo1: http://actionnownetwork.com/home/contents/?p=5400 Photo2: http://www.thecultureist.com/2014/09/19/senegal-moringa-tree-food-poor/

Moringa is available in multiple forms

Above: Moringa Powder + Porridge Left: A Sengalese woman feeds Moringa porridge to her child

Benefit #5: Can Clean Water

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Next: Can Moringa REALLY clean water? I decided to test it out for myself in my home lab.

Photo obtained from Google Images

Part 2: Can Moringa Really Clean Water?

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Before I Share My Results, Here’s My Methodology

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First, I obtained contaminated water, either from: • A local brook during a rainstorm when E. coli count is high • Or the above known contaminated site with a leaky sewer pipe

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Second, I put the Moringa seeds in a bowl, removed the outer shells, and crushed them.

2 I weighed the seeds 3

Moringa Control

I put the crushed seeds in a 1 liter or 300 ml container with contaminated water and stirred.

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Moringa Control

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I filtered the water using a cloth filter (in this case, a Bounty paper towel for a consistent micron rating across multiple experiments) In some experiments, I used a sand filter instead of cloth:

• 250 ml gravel on top • 250 ml course sand in the middle • 250 ml fine sand on the bottom

Note: This is NOT a bio-sand filter, which has fine sand on the top and gravel on the bottom. Bio-sand filters require that one waits until a biofilm forms over several weeks. My filter does not require this step.

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6 To test for bacteria, I used Coliscan Easygel from Micrology Labs.

7 After 24 hours, I read the results. If I did duplicates (which I normally did), I averaged the results. Blue dots = E. coli

Other Notes: (1) I do not count pink dots, as that’s just general coliform (which can come from harmless plants), (2) Each petri dish contains 5 ml of sample. To convert to CFU per 100 ml, I multiply the count by 20, (3) If the count is too high, I put 1 ml in a petri dish and multiply the count by 100 to get CFU per 100 ml.

Question #1: Does Moringa Remove Dirt?

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Time = 0 min

Moringa Control

16 min 20 min 30 min

Yes!

Time = 0 min Time = 13 min Time = 90 min

Yes Again!

Moringa Control

Question #2: Does Moringa Kill E. coli?

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6860 CFU/100 ml 3090 CFU/100 ml

Initially, only a 55% drop

I asked the VA DEQ and MWRA for advice. And I sent James Beckley about 50 emails asking for feedback.

Old Way New Way after people helped me

Cloth Filter Sand filter

Short wait time before filtering Longer wait time before filtering

Poor Moringa dosage Optimized Moringa dosage (determined to be 1.7 to 2 g/liter)

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The New Way Worked!

31,900 CFU / 100 ml on May 31, 2015 Note: The count is unusually high because this was the first flush after one of driest months on Boston record.

2210 CFU / 100 ml

93% drop with 30 min settling time

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The New Way Worked Again!

99% drop with 1.5 hr settling time

1940 CFU/100 ml on a dry day Jun 26,2015

20 CFU / 100 ml

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Next Steps

Initially 55% E. coli

removal

After advice 93%-99% removal

• A Wentworth Institute of Technology professor will ask his incoming class to see if my results can be replicated.

• Two NC State professors may perform the same experiments on viruses, not just E. coli bacteria. I may get an opportunity to work with them next summer.

Part 3: My Suggestion to the US EPA

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Shockingly, when I googled “Moringa and EPA”, I found that the EPA funded a Moringa Research Project!

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Report showed promising results, March 2015. Researchers: University of Miami with help from Engineers without Borders (EWB) EPA Funding = $14,732

Coincidentally, I volunteer for Engineers Without Borders with my mom and brother

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Source: Photo from June 2014 EWB Program Status Report

In June I shared the EPA Moringa Research with Rich, an EWB engineer. Rich took my bag of Moringa seeds and PowerPoint summary to share with villagers in Tanzania the following week.

June 2015 EWB Trip to Tanzania

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Email from Rich to us while he was in Tanzania:

“As you know it grows here but they treat it with disdain like a weed so now they will treat it with respect like a food and potential source or income. Your ppts were perfect…This is now a serious commitment to good people who are in big trouble.”

This villager is holding my bag of Moringa seeds that I gave Rich the week before! Next steps: • Recipes in Swahili • Clean water assessment study • Potential business

Why I Suggest the EPA Does Further Moringa Research

1. EPA has more water purification knowledge than any other agency in the world, including WHO. 2. EPA has a sound research process 3. Moringa has potential US application – could be a sustainable replacement to alum.

From The Water Project Website

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4. Vulnerable children would benefit the most. When the US EPA speaks, the world listens.

Any Questions?

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I want to thank: • James Beckley at VA DEQ. I could not do 99% of this work without his guidance in

the past year. He took the time to help a high schooler 500 miles away! • Sarah Bounty at NepRWA who spent a lot of time teaching me about E. coli • And my mom for letting me use her dining room table to conduct my E. coli tests! • If questions or comments, feel free to email me at ishukla300@gmail.com