🎉August – A Celebration of Breastfeeding and Philippine Heritage

The global community joins forces every first week of August to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week. Participating countries like the Philippines, National Breastfeeding Awareness Month is a high time to promote and support the health of mothers and babies.

Central to many Filipino mothers' breastfeeding journeys is the humble malunggay (Moringa oleifera), a plant long cherished for its natural ability to enhance breast milk production.

Let’s explore how Moringa oleifera, aka Malunggay (Filipino term), ancient wisdom is amplified by modern innovation, cutting-edge technology, and the strategic use of intellectual property (IP), making it a powerful ally in achieving breastfeeding goals, all while being balanced by public health policy. Considering the overall wellness and welfare of the breastfeeding mothers and their youngs, the context of public health policies and regulations, malunggay exhibits a holistic approach to nurturing the next generation.

Against the backdrop of public health policies, malunggay exemplifies a holistic approach to nurturing the next generation.

^☘️Malunggay’s Enduring Legacy: From India to the Filipino Home

Moringa, another term for the plant, spread from the Indian subcontinent, where it is native, to become deeply woven into Filipino culture and cuisine over centuries. Though not originally endemic to the Philippines, the plant flourished in its tropical climate and was embraced as a natural galactagogue by generations of Filipino mothers.

Leaves of malunggay have traditionally been eaten fresh or cooked into dishes such as tinola (Filipino Ginger-Garlic Chicken Soup) and incorporated as a trusted ally to boost lactation.

While these grassroots practices persist, modern science faces the challenge of standardizing and enhancing these benefits to serve today's busy mothers more effectively.

The “Technology” of Breastfeeding Support: Refining Nature’s Gift

Technology in this context transcends machines; it means employing biochemical methods, food processing techniques, and rigorous scientific validation to develop malunggay products that are potent, stable, and user-friendly.

The recent pressing challenges include maintaining consistency in active compound concentration, preserving nutrient stability, enhancing bioavailability, and developing palatable products. 

⚙️Leading Innovations

1. Standardized Capsules
    Carefully dried and powdered malunggay leaves encapsulated in precise dosages, exemplified by brands like Natalac® (Mega-Malunggay®) and VPharma® Malunggay Capsules. These capsules deliver reliable nutrient levels backed by research.

2. Shelf-Stable Beverages
    The M2 Malunggay Tea Drink leverages hot water extraction, pasteurization, and concentration methods to combine malunggay with okra and ginger into a delicious, shelf-stable tea, increasing ease of consumption.
   

Scientific studies confirm Moringa oleifera's effectiveness in elevating prolactin levels and breast milk volume, bridging traditional knowledge with evidence-based maternal care. These include landmark Filipino research, such as Estrella et al. (2000a,b), and recent global systematic reviews.

✅Protecting Innovation and Fostering Trust: Intellectual Property

While traditional knowledge on malunggay's galactagogue role is in the public domain, IP frameworks allow companies to invest in innovation safely and build consumer trust.

Trust Building

1. Through Patents
    Protecting inventive formulations and novel blends involving malunggay, such as Pascual Pharma Corporation's patented lactation-enhancing herbal combo (PH/1/2012/000228). Patents incentivize research beyond raw traditional use.
   

2. Through Trademarks
    Establishing trusted brands like Natalac® and M2 Malunggay Tea Drink protects product identity and assures consumers of consistent quality.
   

3. Trade Secrets
    Protecting proprietary manufacturing details such as extraction temperatures, ingredient ratios, and processing techniques which ensure uniqueness and competitive advantage without public disclosure.
   

The interplay of IP protection drives industry investment in research and innovation, ensuring that consumers access safe, effective, and standardized malunggay-based breastfeeding support products. Together, these IP tools help empower innovation while respecting traditional roots.

⚖️The Crucial Balance: IP Rights and Public Health Policy

Intellectual property rights coexist with vital public health policies that prioritize breastfeeding promotion, most especially when the products that come along with it require utmost care in securing the safety of the infant and the mother. While IP rights are essential to encourage innovation and secure investment in developing malunggay-based breastfeeding support products, they must be harmonized with public health goals.

For the context of maternal and infant health, promoting breastfeeding as the optimal feeding method often requires regulating how breast milk substitutes and related products are made available to the public market — from manufacturing, importation, distribution, finally to direct selling, up to consumption. 

The Philippine Executive Order No. 51 or the "Milk code", enacted in 1986, embodies this balance by restricting the marketing of infant formula to safeguard breastfeeding practices. This implements the WHO's International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and limits trademark use and advertising that could mislead mothers, exemplifying how IP rights and brand promotion, can be lawfully constrained to protect infant and maternal health.

Unlike breast milk substitutes, malunggay-based products aiding in breastfeeding are positioned positively within this context, with IP protections fostering innovation but marketing regulated to align with public health goals.

💁🏻‍♀️A Holistic Approach to Breastfeeding Support

Malunggay, being a traditional galactagogue journeying to a focus of cutting-edge scientific validation, technological refinement, and intellectual property protection, reflects a holistic model for breastfeeding support in the modern era.

This fusion of nature, science, law, and public health policy ensures that mothers receive safe, effective, and trusted breastfeeding aids while safeguarding the fundamental public health mandate to promote nourishing breastfeeding.

Let’s celebrate this month, as we honor World Breastfeeding Month and celebrate malunggay. This is not only as a symbol of Filipino heritage, but also as a beacon of how innovation and collaboration can empower mothers and nurture future generations.

DISCLAIMER: This article is NOT sponsored.

#HealthInnovation #IntellectualProperty #WorldBreastfeedingCelebration #Malunggay #Moringa #Moringaoleifera #Superfood #Nutrition #PublicHealth

#2025August

Created and Written by Alexandra Palacpac, UandIP/U&IP 2025.⁠

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Other References

Estrella, M. C. P., et al. (2000a). A double-blind, randomized controlled trial on the use of malunggay (Moringa oleifera) for augmentation of the volume of breastmilk among non-nursing mothers of preterm infants. Philippine Journal of Pediatrics, 49(1), 3-6.

Estrella, M.M., et al. (2000b). The effect of Moringa oleifera leaf powder supplementation on breast milk volume and composition. Philippine Journal of Nutrition.

#2025August