Moringa has been used in folk medicine, including Siddha medicine and Ayurvedic traditional medicines. In Ayurvedic traditional medicine, the leaves are believed to affect blood pressure and glucose levels. In Africa, Indonesia and Philippines moringa leaves are given to nursing mothers in the belief that they increase lactation.The moringa tree is grown mainly in semiarid, tropical, and subtropical areas, corresponding in the United States to USDA hardiness zones. While it grows best in dry, sandy soil, it tolerates poor soil, including coastal areas. It is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree that is native to the southern foothills of the Himalayas in northwestern India.

Many parts of the moringa are edible. Regional uses of the moringa as food vary widely, and include:

• The immature seed pods, called "drumsticks", popular in Asia and Africa.
• Leaves, particularly in the Cambodia, Philippines, South India.
• Mature seeds
• Oil pressed from the mature seeds
• Roots

The leaves are the most nutritious part of the plant, being a significant source of B vitamins, vitamin C, provitamin A as beta-carotene, vitamin K, manganese and protein, among other essential nutrients. When compared with common foods particularly high in certain nutrients per 100 g fresh weight, cooked moringa leaves are considerable sources of these same nutrients.

In preliminary research, moringa seed powder is being assessed for its potential to make river water potable. Research showed that filtering with seed powder may diminish water pollution and bacterial counts.

Moringa trees have been used to combat malnutrition, especially among infants and nursing mothers. Four NGOs in particular — Trees for Life International, Church World Service, Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, and Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa — have advocated moringa as "natural nutrition for the tropics."One author stated that "the nutritional properties of Moringa are now so well known that there seems to be little doubt of the substantial health benefit to be realized by consumption of Moringa leaf powder in situations where starvation is imminent."Moringa is especially promising as a food source in the tropics because the tree is in full leaf at the end of the dry season when other foods are typically scarce.