While native to northern India, 13 species of moringa are found throughout the world, from Bangladesh to Burkina Faso to Brazil, where they are used as traditional cures for everything from conjunctivitis to gonorrhoea to malaria. The tree is known in English as "drumstick tree" (due to the shape of the seed pods) or "horseradish tree" (as its roots taste similar to horseradish), but the fact that it"s also commonly referred to as "mother"s best friend" and the "never die tree" would seem to imply that its benefits were not entirely unknown to the British.