The Next Kava? Noni Hits The Mainland
As the world becomes a smaller place, remedies that once were regional are now going global. Following in the footsteps of its island cousin kava, noni is establishing a position in the herbal world. Indigenous to Southeast Asia, noni (Morinda citrifolia) was domesticated and cultivated by Polynesians, first in Tahiti and the Marquesas, and eventually in Hawaii. Today noni ranges from Tahiti to India and grows in the Caribbean, South America and the West Indies.
The fruit of the noni tree has a distinctive and somewhat unpleasant cheesy aroma. Nonetheless, noni fruit was traditionally eaten by native cultures in Samoa, Fiji, Burma and Australia. In Hawaii and the Marquesas, noni was a famine food and was also fed to livestock. More commonly the root and bark of the noni tree were employed as fabric dyes, a use for which noni remained popular in Polynesia, Asia and Europe until the 1950s. Depending on the fixatives with which it was combined, noni was used to produce yellow, red or purple colors. From Italy to India, noni dye colored carpets, sweaters and turbans.
In traditional plant-based medicine, the fruit, flower, leaves, bark and root of Morinda citrifolia have all been employed for diverse medicinal purposes. In Polynesia, noni leaves have a long history of topical use for the treatment of rheumatic pain, inflammation, neuralgia, ulcers, gout, cough and cold, boils and ringworm. The fruit, too, was prepared for topical use, sometimes juiced and mixed with salt or sliced and applied to boils. In Hawaiian traditional medicine, noni fruit was crushed and mixed with other plants including awapuhi and awa (kava), and applied to bruises, sprains and swollen limbs. The leaves of the tree were mashed with other plants and applied to deep wounds.
In traditional medicine, noni fruit was used relatively little compared with other parts of the plant, but it was used. In Hawaii, a digestive was made combining crushed noni fruit with cane juice. The fruit was also part of formulas for cleansing, which also included taro, cane juice and other plants. By the 1930s noni fruit was used more widely for internal purposes, including for treatment of intestinal worms, weakness and respiratory disorders. Since that time the juice of the ripe fruit has also been consumed as a folk remedy to help stabilize blood sugar in cases of adult diabetes.
Today noni fruit is gaining popularity in the booming herbal supplements market. Either dried and crushed, juiced and bottled, or freeze-dried, noni fruit is being promoted as a powerful aid to wellness. The chemistry of noni fruit, or at least what is understood of it, points to its benefits. The fruit contains a concentration of anthraquinones—including one called damnacanthal—which has a purgative effect. This may account for the "cleansing" described by many users. Noni fruit also contains a concentration of vitamin A, as well as the insecticidal octanoic acid. The presence of octanoic acid explains the traditional Hawaiian use of the fruit in insecticidal shampoos. Analysis shows the presence of numerous acids, including linoleic, oleic, acetic and palmitic acids. The fruit contains esters, ketones, lactones and alcohols. In the 1980s researcher Ralph Heinecke reported the discovery in noni of a novel agent dubbed xeronine, ostensibly responsible for the plant's miraculous healing effects. His findings have been exploited heavily by multilevel marketers, but the findings have yet to be confirmed.
Noni appears to stimulate the production of some of the foot soldiers of the immune system including T-cells, macrophages and thymocytes, thereby enhancing immune function. And in animal studies, noni fruit extended the lives of mice with cancer. Subsequent analysis of the fruit shows the presence of a polysaccharide-rich compound that possesses anti-tumor properties.
Further phytochemical investigations into noni will likely lead to the discovery of other compounds, while biological-activity studies will provide better information about how these agents work in the body. Considering the positive discoveries that have been made with noni fruit so far, there is excellent reason to think that continued studies will likely discover further benefits attributable to the fruit and its preparations.
Natural Foods Merchandiser volume XXI/number 3/p. 128