Moringa oil has been mentioned as a very useful oil in the medicinal books of Greece and Rome. Even today, this oil is used for a number of industrial applications. It is great for topical use on the skin and the hair. It is also a nice cooking oil with a soft, appealing taste.

Seeds offer a relatively high yield of 22-38% oil.

The oil can be extracted either by cold pressed method, or by solvent extraction . In olden times, it was extracted using hand pressing.

There are many varieties of Moringa oil, depending on the variety of Moringa tree from which the oil is extracted. Oil taken from different locations has slight differences in nutrition and properties, like India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Malawi and other parts of Africa. Other species in the genus Moringa are also used to make moringa oil, but they are not Ben oil. This is especially reserved for Moringa oleifera oil.

Standards

The organic Moringa seed oil should not contain harmful solvents like hexane.

Names

Moringa oil is also known as Ben Oil, Behen Oil.

Color, Taste and Aroma

Ben oil is light yellow in color. It is odorless with a mild taste.

Uses

Moringa seed oil has had lots of uses since it was first extracted. These are some of the prominent industrial and home uses for the Ben oil.

Soap – Moringa oil is used in soapmaking because of its skin cleansing and moisturizing property.

Perfume Base – Perhaps the best natural perfume base of all oils. Moringa oil was preferred by people of ancient civilizations. It was used as base for perfumes. Even today, this remains one of the most important commercial application of moringa oil.

Oiling Machinery – Moringa oil is a preferred oil for lubricating small machine parts, like watches.

Cooking oil– Moringa oil is a nice cooking oil. It is used for deep frying and sauteing. Its smoke point is about 200 ° C which is good for deep frying purpose.  Moringa seed oil is preferred as a salad oil in many places.

Moringa oil is one of the most stable oils. It hardly gets rancid and can be used for many days. Though it is extracted using various processes, the healthiest one is the cold pressed oil. It is more dense, has more color and even more taste than filtered or solvent extracted oils.