Moringa Oleifera Soap reducing bacterial contamination.
Moringa Oleifera could be very useful in places where soap or water is not available, and where this tree grows naturally.
It could also be a cheap and healthy hand-washing optional product.
Efficacy of Moringa Oleifera leaf powder as a hand- washing product. Other authors found that aqueous and ethanolic Moringa oleifera leaf extracts were effective against Salmonella.
Diarrheal disease are a common cause of morbidity and the leading cause of death among children under five, accounting for 19% of mortality in this age group [1]. Most of all diarrheal deaths of children under five years are in Africa and South East Asia [2].
The vast majority of diarrheal diseases are caused by bacteria, viruses and protozoa, mainly found in human faeces which are spread from the stool of one person to the mouth of another. Hands can act as a vector for transmission of faecal pathogens, either via direct person-to-person transmission or by contaminating food that is later consumed [3]. Hand washing after defecation and before handling food is therefore a biologically plausible mechanism for interrupting pathogen transmission. Hands are also transmission vectors for respiratory infections, and interventions promoting hand hygiene have been shown to reduce gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses by an average of 31% and 21%, respectively [4].
Methods: The hands of fifteen volunteers were artificially contaminated with Escherichia coli. Moringa oleifera leaf powder was tested as a hand washing product and was compared with reference non-medicated liquid soap using a cross over design following an adaptation of the European Committee for Standardization protocol (EN 1499). In a second part of tests, the efficacy of the established amount of Moringa oleifera leaf powder was compared with an inert powder using the same protocol.
Results: Application of 2 and 3 g of dried Moringa oleifera leaf powder (mean log 10 -reduction: 2.44 ± 0.41 and 2.58 ± 0.34, respectively) was significantly less effective than the reference soap (3.00 ± 0.27 and 2.99 ± 0.26, respectively; p < 0.001). Application of the same amounts of Moringa oleifera (2 and 3 g) but using a wet preparation, was also significantly less effective than reference soap (p < 0.003 and p < 0.02, respectively). However there was no significant difference when using 4 g of Moringa oleifera powder in dried or wet preparation (mean log 10 -reduction: 2.70 ± 0.27 and 2.91 ± 0.11, respectively) compared with reference soap (2.97 ± 0.28). Application of calcium sulphate inert powder was significantly less effective than the 4 g of Moringa oleifera powder (p < 0.01).
Conclusion: Four grams of Moringa oleifera powder in dried and wet application had the same effect as non-medicated soap when used for hand washing. Efficacious and available hand washing products could be useful in developing countries in controlling pathogenic organisms that are transmitted through contaminated hands.
Efficacy of Moringa oleifera leaf powder as a hand- washing product
Belen Torondel, 1 †, David Opare, 1†, Bjorn Brandberg,2, , Emma Cobb, 1and Sandy Cairncross.
Other authors found that aqueous and ethanolic Moringa oleifera leaf extracts were effective against Salmonella. Moringa Oleifera is more efficacious in reducing bacterial contamination.
Moringa oleifera leaf powder (100% natural) was obtained from LUTOR Ltd. (UK). The aim of this study was to test the efficacy of the leaves as a hand washing product in dried and wet preparation. And also to test the effect of using different amounts (2, 3 and 4 g). When we compared the efficacy of 2, 3 and 4 g of dried vs. wet Moringa oleifera, our results showed that Moringa oleifera was more efficacious in reducing bacterial contamination when used in wet preparation in all the 3 doses, but the difference was significant (0.21 log10 higher for the wet than the dried preparation; p?=?0.01) only when 4 g of Moringa oleifera was used (Table 2). We also observed higher effect when we increased the dose of Moringa oleifera in both wet and dried preparations (Figure 2).
The mean log10-reduction with 4 g of dried Moringa oleifera was significantly greater than with 2 and 3 g dried preparation (p?<?0.01). 4 g of wet Moringa oleifera was more efficacious than 2 and 3 g of wet preparation but the reduction was only significantly higher when compared with 2 g of wet Moringa oleifera (0.21 log10 reduction (p?=?0.01).
The main finding of this study is that Moringa oleifera can reduce bacterial load on artificially contaminated hands when used as a dried or wet Moringa powder formulation. A dose of 4 g of Moringa oleifera in wet or dried formulation presented the same efficacy as non-medicated soap.
Other authors found that aqueous and ethanolic Moringa oleifera leaf extracts were effective against Salmonella[10].
The authors attributed the antibacterial effect to the presence of saponins, tannic, phenolic and alkaloid phytoconstituents [16]. Moringa oleifera leaves had been found in other studies to present an important amount of saponins (80 g/kg) [17]. Saponins are chemical compounds which have detergent or surfactant properties [18] and this may explain the bacterial reduction when using Moringa oleifera as a hand washing product.
In this study we also showed a dose–response reduction effect of Moringa oleifera, with a dose of 4 g associated with a greater bacterial reduction, comparable with the efficacy of non-medicated soap. These results suggest that when using Moringa oleifera, the hands have to be completely full of the powder in order to have the best results. The use of a wet preparation also presented better results than when dried powder was used.
This could be explained by the water’s effect [19] in extracting more of the active component of the plant at the moment of hand cleansing. Water is a universal solvent, and other many studies have described its ability to extract plant products with antimicrobial activity [19]. Thus the solvents most commonly used for preliminary investigations of antimicrobial activity in plants are methanol, ethanol and water [20-22].
The challenges of using this product in a domestic setting should be explored. How would users accept using a dried plant to clean their hands? How could the material be made available in specific domestic points where hand hygiene takes place? One possibility would be to place baskets with dried Moringa oleifera powder and spoons to dispense it, close to crucial places for hand hygiene, for example next to the cooking place and the latrine.
In this study we have demonstrated the effect of dried Moringa oleifera leaves in reducing bacteria on hands. It would be very interesting to test the bacterial reduction effect of fresh leaves. The possibility of using fresh leaves could facilitate its use as preparation process would not be necessary, opening up new avenues for its use, for example in open defecation places where Moringa trees are available.
Conclusion: Four grams of Moringa oleifera powder in dried and wet application had the same effect as non-medicated soap when used for hand washing. Moringa oleifera could be very useful in places where soap or water is not available, and where this tree grows naturally.
It could also be a cheap and healthy hand-washing optional product.
Dr Fahey has previously done numerous experiments with Moringa. The tropical plant Moringa provides for good handwashing material Handwashing with soap could save hundreds of thousands of lives each year by safeguarding people against diseases transmitted through contaminated hands, including diarrhoea which is the second biggest killer of under five year old.
Handwashing products that are both readily available and effective could be useful in encouraging increased handwashing with soap in settings where such diseases contribute significantly to the disease burden. SHARE-funded research has found that Moringa oleifera, whose antibacterial activity against different pathogens has been described in different in vitro settings, can be an effective handwashing product if used in the correct concentration.
By testing the effect of Moringa oleifera leaf powder on hands artificially contaminated with E. coli and comparing this to the effect of non-medicated liquid soap, the researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that four grams of Moringa oleifera powder had the same effect as non-medicated soap when used for hand washing.
The findings of the study have been published in the BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine journal.
Natural Moringa Soap cold process different process makes the color more green.
Baca Villa’s Natural Moringa soap is a cold process soap, for more information, please visit our soap site.