Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 12, 1 December 1991 — Hawaiian Health Horizons [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hawaiian Health Horizons

Noni — miracle or fad fruit?

by Maleolm Chun Office of Hawaiian Health Frogram Specialist It seems that within a few months the praises and claims of the fruit of the noni plant (Morinda citrifolia L. rubiaceae) or commonly known as "lndian mulberry" have spread through urban Honolulu. News of the curative results for drinking noni juice ean be found in the recent classified ads in the Honolulu newspapers selling plants, fruits and juice. Plants were sold at a recent Foster Gardens sale as the medicine plant and more recently were advertised on sale by a major supermarket nursery store claiming a limited stock and no rain eheek. The fruit and juice may now be purchased in Honolulu's Chinatown from a store on Hotel Street near the old Wo Fat's Restaurant. Further, it is reported that an entrepreneur on Maui has capsules of dried or dehydrated noni for sale. All of this excitement has gotten neighbor islanders complaining about the raiding by Honolulu people of their noni trees and fruits along their roadsides and the packaging of them on interisland flights bound for Honolulu. The Office of Hawaiian Health in the Department of Health receives at least one inquiry a month regarding how to get the fruit or plants, what it will cure, and how to prepare it. The "coconut wireless" particularly among the elderly is spreading the news about the claimed curative affects of noni, so the following research and education is provided. Noni has widespread distribution in the Pacific. Researchers from the lndian subcontinent have reported widespread usage of noni among "tribal" peoples for medicinal purposes. Noni was also on display at the Samoan exhibit of medicinal herbs during the Smithsonian Institute's Hawai'i day held at Magic Island. Noni was brought and introduced in the Hawaiian islands by Pacific Islanders before the arrival of European-American explorers and adventures and in written Native accounts it was used for dyes (yielding a red and a yellow dye) in the production of kapa (bark cloth). It is interesting to note that several medicinal manuscripts recorded by native persons, from the 1840s to 1920s, have a very limited use for

noni, whieh may strongly suggest to be contrary to more recent publications' claims for noni to be an "ancient" or traditional medicine. Publications from the 1970s and on elaim that most parts (leaves, fruit, stem, bark and root) of the noni plant are used for medicines. Leaves are reported to be used for poultices or that mashed fruit is drunk for ulcers. Noni is reported to have been used for more serious ailments and now seems to be the latest cure-all remedy, whieh may explain the tremendous interest in selling and raising plants. A paper has been published entitled, "The Pharmacologically Active Ingredient of Noni" by R.M. Heinieke of the University of Hawai'i. The author reports that he found noni to be "the best raw material to use for the isolation of xeronine," a new alkaloid. He writes, "Xeronine is a relatively small alkaloid . . . It occurs in practically all healthy cells of plants, animals and microorganisms . . . Even though noni fruits have a negligible amount of free xeronine, they contain appreciable amounts of the precursor of xeronine . . . Noni fruits also contain the inactive form of enzyme whieh releases xeronine from proxeronine. Unless this proenzyme becomes properly activated, however, noni juice will cause few pharmacological reactions. Fortunately if noni juice is taken on an empty stomach, the critical proenzyme escapes digestion in the stomach and enters the intestines. Here the chances are high that it may becomq activated. Heinieke concludes that "Since noni is a potential source of this alkaloid, noni juice ean be a valuable herbal remedy. There are some practical problems, however, in using noni juice as a medicine or tonic . . . the flavor of juice made from npe Hawaiian noni is terrible (and)anothercritical problem is (when to use) noni juice as a medicine. If the juice is drunk on a full stomach, it will have very little beneficial action. The pepsin and acid in the stomach will destroy the enzyme whieh liberates xeronine. For a seriously sick person taking the juice on an empty stomach rarely poses a problem . . . however, for the average person . . . timing is critical. I would recommend taking 100 ml I (roughly 3 to 4 fluid ounces) of noni juice a half hour brfore breakfast." He also adds that noni juice should not be taken with coffee, tobacco or aleohol and that he would prefer to use only the green fruit as it has more of the potentially valuable

components and less of the Undesirable flavor. There are several people who swear by the curative properties of noni and there are those who will have nothing to do with it at all, pdrticularly to drink it, but let it fall on the wayside of Ka'ahumanu Highway in Kona. The only memories I have of this plant is the blurry image of seeing my grandfather taking a jigger of this vile smelling substance in the early morning. That was his "medicine." I also, but more clearly, remember the smell of the noni fruit that as kids we used as ammunition to throw at eaeh other. Perhaps its curative effect has a lot to do with being ab!e to stand the odor of the noni fruit and its juice. The interest in the noni plant furthers the case that there is still a lot of research needed in the study of native medicines and for the need to grow native plants in these islands.

Noni