That Malunggay Tree (Moringa) in Our Backyard Just Got a Promotion

 

I was scrolling through my phone this morning — the usual routine before the day officially starts — when I saw a headline from CNN that made me put down my cup and read it again slowly.

A "miracle tree" can filter more than 98% of microplastics from tap water.

The tree they were talking about? Moringa oleifera.

Which we Filipinos simply call malunggay.

And I looked up from my phone, looked out toward the backyard, and quietly said — lagi na nating alam 'yan. We already knew.

Our Morning Routine (That Apparently Has Science Behind It)

Every morning at our house, my mom makes herbal tea. Malunggay leaves from the backyard, sometimes mixed with pansit-pansitan — also from the same backyard. No measuring, no timer. Just picked, rinsed, and boiled the way she's always done it.

It's been our morning routine for as long as I can remember. Not because of any study or health trend. Just because that's what we do. That's what she knows.

And now apparently scientists from Brazil and the United Kingdom have caught up.

What the Study Actually Found

A team of researchers found that extracts from moringa seeds work just as well as commonly-used chemicals at removing microplastics from drinking water.

They tested microplastics with a mean size of about a quarter of the thickness of an average human hair and found the seed extracts were 98.5% effective at removing them from tap water when used in filtration systems.

The chemical they compared it to is called alum — aluminum sulfate — which is what most water treatment plants use today. Moringa seeds actually performed better than alum in more alkaline water conditions.

Now why does this matter?

Microplastics have been found everywhere — from deep oceans to towering mountains. A 2024 study found microplastics in 83% of tap water tested around the world, and they've made their way into our bodies, including our brains, reproductive organs, and cardiovascular systems.

That's not a distant, abstract problem. That's our daily glass of water.

But Wait — Why Seeds and Not Leaves?

Good question. The CNN article specifically mentions seeds, not leaves. That's where the researchers found the coagulant properties — the ability to cause tiny particles in water to clump together so they can be filtered out.

The malunggay tea we drink every morning uses the leaves, which are packed with vitamins and nutrients. That's a different benefit entirely — and also a real one.

So to be clear: drinking malunggay leaf tea is not the same as using moringa seeds to filter your tap water. They are two different parts of the same tree doing two different jobs. Both useful. Don't let anyone oversimplify it.

The Limitations (Because Honest Is Better)

One moringa seed can treat about 10 liters of water. While that's promising, it would require a very large quantity of seeds for large urban water treatment plants handling high flows. So this isn't replacing your city's water system tomorrow.

The technique may be most useful for small communities or places where chemical coagulants are difficult to access. Which, honestly, describes a lot of barangays in the Philippines perfectly.

More research is also needed to understand how the seed extracts degrade, what happens to the captured plastic particles, and whether this works on other types of microplastics beyond PVC — and eventually, nanoplastics too.

Science is careful. We should be too. 

What This Means for Us

Here's what I keep thinking about.

We have a malunggay tree in our backyard. A lot of Filipino households do. It grows fast, it gives freely, it asks for nothing. We use the leaves for soup, for tea, for just about everything. The seeds usually just fall to the ground.

And now there's a peer-reviewed study saying those seeds — the ones we've been stepping over — could be part of a solution to one of the most serious water pollution problems of our generation.

Moringa trees have been used to purify water for millennia. Ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians all used them. This isn't new knowledge to the world. It was just knowledge the modern world forgot to look at for a while. 

Filipinos never forgot. We just called it malunggay and kept planting it.

Mavs' Final Diagnosis

You don't need to run out and start filtering water with malunggay seeds at home — the research is still early and the process needs proper filtration systems, not a pot and a strainer.

But if you have a malunggay tree at home, appreciate it a little more today. Drink the tea. Use the leaves. And the next time someone tells you that "traditional" remedies are just old superstitions, you can quietly hand them a CNN article and go back to your breakfast.

Our lolas were onto something. Science is just writing the paper.

Source:

Original study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.5c11569 (ACS Omega journal — cite if you want to go deeper)