Tapping and packaging the goodness of a backyard crop
The delicate, feathery Murunga tree, called the Drumstick Tree because of the knobbly seed pods that festoon it like witches’ fingers, can thrive in the most arid soil, but it is easy not to pick up its quivering bushy frame in a country with a landscape daubed in a million greens. It grows obscurely in our backyards and we are hardly grateful to the leaves and pods it bountifully gives.
But the world is awakening to the goodness of ‘Moringa’ or the ‘miracle tree’- as it is christened in the west. Asanga Amaratunga is Managing Director of Moriceylon, a local company that taps into the tree’s magical potency.
The idea came around in the early 2010s. Asanga and his partners were brainstorming for a business that can empower local communities, while turning under-utilised resources into innovative products which, in turn, can be sold to discerning clients.
After discarding a few ideas like avocado oil, they stumbled on murunga, a backyard crop that “does not require any pampering nor advance technology for cultivating”. They then tied up with the Industrial Technological Institute (ITI) who did the initial research. Armed with scientific testing and information, Moriceylon established a vision.
The company does not own any murunga plantations. All of it is grown in the backyards of villagers in Paraduwa Galpatha, Kalutara, where the factory is located. The produce is bought from the villagers at a good price.
Moriceylon makes it a priority to ensure their work is environment friendly and carbon neutral. The growers deliver the murunga leaves to the factory using their bicycles, ensuring better health and a minimal carbon footprint. The production plant itself produces minimal to no sound. The waste raw material is composted, and given back to the community for gardening and to be used for other homegrown crops.
While murunga has traditionally been dried using sunlight or ovens, these methods kill essential nutrients. So Moriceylon insists on cold drying. Called Desiccant-based dehumidification, it is a slow process that takes 15 hours. The environment is controlled to retain the moisture at 7% so that nutrients from the tree remain when powdering.
Currently the powder is used to manufacture three products: Cold dried Moringa Powder, Cold dried Moringa Powder in vegetarian (HPMC) capsules and 100% Moringa leaf tea, all of them exquisitely packaged.
The moringa powder comes in an elfin shade of green that is pleasant to the eye. It has a mustardy odour and also a pungent taste that brings mustard to mind.
Moringa really deserves to be called a superfood, even though in other contexts the word is usually shunned as a commercial moniker.
It is becoming popular as a natural food supplement and a direct substitute for syntactic multi-vitamins, and is widely accepted by the west and in Japan. It is also becoming very popular among vegans, and is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to fight malnutrition in Africa.
Sadly, despite this natural gift thriving heftily in our kitchen gardens, Sri Lankans still prefer popping synthetically developed multivitamins- supplements imported from UK, Australia and USA, says Asanga.
Moringa, he says, is today a 4 bil- lion Dollar business, 80% of which is supplied by India and the balance from Africa, Philippines and Hawi. Moriceylon may be a small player in the scene, but they are set distinctively apart with the process of production and the community involvement.
The appellation “the miracle tree” derives from the versatility of murunga, seeing as every part of the tree is beneficial, used in different forms for dog bites and skin care treatment to water purification and bacterial infections. Asanga says that the next step for Moriceylon is to extract Moringa oil from seeds.
Beyond that, the company has blueprints to diversify into other leaves, and look into reactivating their original project of producing Avocado Oil.
Moriceylon tea and capsules are available at the Race Course Good Market while tea and powder can be brought at Hansa Cafe, 24 Fife Rd, Colombo 5. You can also buy the tea from Green Care Organics, 56 Chitra Lane, Colombo 5. The tea is enriched with much goodness and very similar to green tea, says Asanga.
Moriceylon is present on Facebook, Instagram and online (moriceylon.com), and is contactable via mobile on 0774316238.