Moringa for Health                        <<back>>

Report 1 on the Project Moringa
of Able and Willing

Mamadou Dia’s trip to Manabougou, Mali and Clinical Trials
August, 2012 to January, 2013

Partnering to turn Moringa into a food supplement for children

The Centre de Santé de Manabougou agreed to work in partnership with Mamadou to get the Moringa powder to malnourished children in the area.  The clinic serves Manabougou and surrounding villages and is staffed by qualified health technicians:  Mr. Ousmane Bagayogo supervisor, supported by Ms. Assanatou Sissoko and Mr. Bakary Diarra. 

Mamadou began discussions with the clinic staff via phone in August, 2012. Mr. Diarra said malnutrition is very rampant among the children from birth to five years old, with about 15% of the children being chronically malnourished. Since the Centre de Santé does not have resources to treat the children, they must be sent to a health clinic seven kilometers from Manabougou to receive help. This is a hardship for most villagers because adequate public transportation is poor and costly. Mamadou asked if they would be interested in participating in a study that would involve giving Moringa to a group of children and document the results. They responded that they would very much like to participate in this study.

First Harvest!

Mamadou arrived at his farm in Manabougou on September 15 to oversee production of Moringa powder and outreach to the local clinic. When he arrived there were 1500 trees in various stages from seedlings to 5 month old trees that were 6 to 9 ft. high. The first harvest began October 18 with the removal of the lowest branches of approximately 100 of the older Moringa trees. This resulted in about two pounds of Moringa leaf powder.

A barbed wire fence was built near the creek to prevent roaming cattle from coming onto the farm. A shelter was also built as a processing area to dry the Moringa. The shelter proved to be too small to meet demand and will need to be expanded.

Height is recorded.

Weight is recorded.

First Clinical Trials

In mid-October, Mamadou met with Mr. Bagayogo and his assistants at the Centre de Santé to explain the program. He provided them with documents about Moringa and asked that they schedule a meeting with the children and their parents for October 31. In the meantime, the Centre de Santé staff pre-screened and interviewed villagers who were interested in being a part of the study.

On October 31, Mamadou and the Centre de Santé staff met with 9 families with 10 children (one set of twins) and conducted formal introductions and a presentation about Moringa and its health benefits. The families were very happy and excited to learn about the benefits of Moringa. The Moringa “health powder” was distributed and Mr. Bagayogo gave a demonstration on how to use the product. Ms. Sissoko was assigned to follow-up with the families weekly. They weighed the children and asked questions about their progress, if they were eating well, their appetite and energy level, and to discuss any concerns they may have.

First Results

After fifteen days in the program (November 15), all the children had gained from about 12 ounces to 1.3 pounds and have increased appetite and energy. (See Table 1) The parents are very excited about their children’s progress in such a short period of time. Word is now spreading in the villag

Initial results were so good that many mothers brought there children to be in the next treatment group.

e and the surrounding area. People who were too busy with the harvest in September and October to come for the first study started flocking to the health clinic.

More Clinical Trials and Production

In December, the clinic interviewed new applicants for group two. On Friday January 4, 2013, a new group of ten children began the second study. (See Table 2).

The good news is that the farm supervisor, François Dembele, has been keeping up with the harvesting and supplying of the leaf powder to the clinic and there have been no interruptions in the supply of product for the children.

Although there are 1500 plants on the farm, the harvesting methods are slow. All harvesting is done by hand and takes long periods of time. The farm lacks the proper tools for large scale harvesting.  It also needs a large drying area with adequate ventilation, leaf grinders, packaging and a storage space for the product.

2013 Goals

The Moringa Project would like to accomplish the following tasks in 2013:

• Build a firewall around the farm. In the fall of 2011, an experimental section of Moringa trees was destroyed when fire from neighboring fields swept through the farm. The firewall is to protect the farm from such disasters in the future. In November 2012, another fire threatened the entire farm again. As luck would have it, the wind changed directions which prevented a disaster.
• Build a larger leaf drying area.
• Purchase larger leaf grinders to begin mass production.
• Teach other farmers how to grow and process Moringa.

Children in Groups 1 and 2.

	Name	1st day weight 10/31/12	15th day weight 11/14/12	Weight gain
1	Babou Traoré	6.00 kg  (13.2 lb)	6.40 kg	.40 kg  (.88 lb)
2	Djènèba Traoré	7.10 kg  (15.6 lb)	7.50 kg	.40 kg  (.88 lb)
3	Issa Koné	9.10 kg  (20.0 lb)	9.60 kg	.50 kg  (1.1 lb)
4	Djènèba Traoré	6.90 kg  (15.8 lb)	7.20 kg	.30 kg  (.66 lb)
5	Marie Diallo	9.70 kg  (21.3 lb)	10.10 kg	.40 kg  (.88 lb)
6	Aminata Traoré	6.40 kg  (14.0 lb)	6.90 kg	.50 kg  (1.1 lb)
7	Guine Traoré	9.50 kg  (20.9 lb)	9.90 kg	.40 kg  (.88 lb)
8	Mabalia Wonogo	7.50 kg  (16.5 lb)	8.10 kg	.60 kg (1.32 lb)
9	Fousseni Diarra	7.30 kg  (16.0 lb)	7.90 kg	.60 kg (1.32 lb)
10	Adam Diarra	7.60 kg  (16.7 lb)	8.00 kg	.40 kg  (.88 lb)

Table 1: Children's weight gain after 15 days using Moringa powder.  The health assessor was Mr. Ousmane Bagayogo, Centre de Sante, Manabougou,

	Name	Age	Height	1st day weight 01/4/13	Weight gain (TBD)
1	Sounkalo Coulibaly	4 years	107 cm  (42.1 in)	14.60 kg  (32.1 lb)
2	Badji Fané	12 months	72 cm  (28.3 in)	6.10 kg  (13.4 lb)
3	Djènèba Traoré	20 months	76 cm  (29.9 in)	7.70 kg  (16.9 lb)
4	Aminata Traoré	12 months	73 cm  (28.7 in)	7.30 kg  (16.0 lb)
5	Mabalia Wonogo	22 months	79 cm  (31.1 in)	7.90 kg  (17.3 lb)
6	Sekou Konta	20 months	87 cm  (34.3 in)	10.0 kg  (22.0 lb)
7	Néré Diarra	12 months	74 cm  (29.1 in)	7.60 kg  (16.7 lb)
8	Sidi Coulibaly	19 months	80 cm  (31.5 in)	8.00 kg  (17.6 lb)
9	Moussa Diarra	3 years	88 cm  (34.6 in)	10.90 kg  (24.0 lb)
10	Aminata Traoré	12 months	73 cm  (28.7 in)	7.30 kg  (16.0 lb)

Table 2:  Another group of children was registered on January 4, 2013.Table 2:  Another group of children was registered on January 4, 2013.