Scientists who studied the leaves of the so-called "miracle tree" - a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree with extremely nutritious leaves, with the botanical name Moringa oleifera, dubbed them "super food" because the leaves contain the calcium equivalent of four glasses of milk, the vitamin C content of seven oranges, the potassium of three bananas, three times the amount of iron found in spinach, four times the amount of vitamin A found in a carrot and twice the amount of protein in milk, Inter Press Service (IPS) reports.

Over the past three years, Mavis Mathabatha, a former school teacher from Tooseng, set up a 15-hectare plantation, creating a Moringa farm that will produce enough leaves to help her community. "I want to make an impact in my area, province and across the country through this project," she explains.

Mathabatha dries and grinds Moringa leaves and sprinkles them on the meals provided to about 400 poor children at the local Sedikong sa Lerato (Sesotho: "Circle of Love") drop-in centre. The centre feeds practically all boys and girls in Tooseng, Limpopo, among a community suffering from high rates of unemployment, poverty, food insecurity and low diet-diversity, malnutrition and HIV-infection. "The results were visible almost immediately. The health of the children improved in a short period of time," says Elizabeth Serogole, the drop-in centre's manager who works closely with Mathabatha. She says many children had been showing signs of malnutrition, like open sores on their skins, which started to heal soon after the children regularly ate the leaves. "Most can now better concentrate at school." All it needed was one teaspoon of leaf powder a day," Serogole adds.

Dr. Samson Tesfay from the South African University of KwaZulu-Natal's Horticultural Science Department, agrees: "The Moringa plant [...] has medicinal, therapeutic, nutritive and practical uses. It is extremely effective in combating malnutrition," Tesfay told IPS. Moringa's immature pods were full of essential amino acids. The leaves can also be used to treat skin infections, lower blood pressure and blood sugar, reduce swelling, heal gastric ulcers and calm the nervous system. Moreover, he says, the tree's seeds can be used to purify water in rural areas where access to clean drinking water is difficult and often a cause for disease. "The seeds are effective in removing about 98 percent of impurities and microbes from contaminated water," says Tesfay.