5th Moringa Congress

The recently concluded 5th Moringa Congress held last Nov 21-22, 2013 at Mimosa Convention Hall in Clark, Pampanga was attended by some 300 participants coming from nearby provinces and the Visayas and Mindanao regions. The Pangasinan State University was well represented by their Sta Maria and Infanta group of professors.

The Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) Director General Ordonia informed the audience that it could fund research work on moringa. The keynote speaker from Johns Hopkins USA, Dr. Jed Fahey revealed that moringa is just as potent as broccoli in addressing health issues and showed the increase of interest on moringa as a phytopharmaceutical possibility, not only as food supplement. Dr. Channing Marx, a consultant of USFDA explained that there is a growing market for food supplements including moringa in the United States. Dr. Choy Mamaril of the Bureau of Plant Industry declared that there is an ongoing "fingerprinting" of moringa varieties present in the Philippines and best practices in manufacturing moringa products by Dr. Cristina Gragasin of PHILMEC compared three moringa processing plants to show the difference in nutrients retained after moringa leaves are processed. Dr. Isidro Sia of the UP College of Medicine expressed that it is good to eat all kinds of vegetables in spite of moringa's high content of vitamins and nutrients. Dr. David Makin of MPFI focused on high density system in planting moringa. An open forum followed and discussions were formulated into resolutions addressed to the DOH,DEPED, and DA for implementation.

Towards the end of the Congress, an award of recognition as Father of Moringa in the PHilippines was given to Dr. Dominador Tapiador. To jumpstart the germplasm project in the Philippines, a Memo of Agreement was signed between the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC) and the Moringaling Philippines Foundation, Inc. (MPFI)