International Journal of Noni Research - Noni Family

21 Intl. J. Noni Res. 2007, 2(1-2)
P. Rethinam et al. Noni (Morinda citrifolia L.) - the Miracle Fruit - a holistic review
used to produce a yellow or red dye for tapa (cloths) and fala (mats). While
noni fruit is most famous for its role in Polynesian, Melanesian, and Southeast
Asian material medica, there are also numerous ethnobotanical reports of its
use as food (Rock, 1913; Wilder, 1934; Brown, 1935; Yuncker, 1943;
Turbott, 1949; Stone, 1970; Degener, 1973; Uhe, 1974; Seemann, 1977;
Whistler, 1992; Krauss, 1993; Terra, 1996). Some reports have indicated its
use was limited to times of famine (Krauss, 1993). This, however, is not
correct. The fruit was reported to have been eaten often by Rarotongans, was
a favorite ingredient in curries prepared by Burmese, and the Australian
Aborigines were known to be very fond of the fruit. Captain James Cook of
the British Navy noted in the late 1700's that the fruit was eaten in Tahiti. In
1769, Sydney Parkinson, one of Captain James Cook's crew on the Endeavour,
recorded that Tahitians ate noni fruit. This was likely the 1st written description
of its use as a food. More than 2 centuries later, in 1943, the U.S.
government recognized the fruit as edible (Merrill, 1943). There has thus
been ample human experience with eating noni fruit to validate its safety for
human consumption), while the fruit was eaten for health and food (Aragones
et al., 1997).
Traditional Food Use
Morinda citrifolia fruit has long history of use as a food in tropical regions
throughout the world. Documentation of the consumption of the fruit as a
food source precedes the twentieth century. An 1866 publication in London
explained that M. citrifolia fruit was consumed as a food in the Fiji islands.
Later publications described the use of this fruit throughout the Pacific
Islands, Southeast Asia, Australia and India. In Samoa, Noni fruit was common
fare and in Burma it was cooked in curries or eaten raw with salt. In 1943,
Merrill described M. Citrifolia, L. as an edible plant in a technical manual of
edible and poisonous plants of the Pacific Islands, in which the leaves and
fruits were used as emergency food. In 1992, Abbott reported that Noni had
been used as food, drink, medicine and dye. The tribes i.e., Nicobarese are
known to have consumed this fruit raw with salt as well as cooked as
vegetable (Singh et. al., 2005).
Medicinal use of Morinda
The Polynesians utilized the whole Noni plant for herbal remedies. The fruit
juice is in high demand in alternative medicine for different kinds of illnesses
such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, muscle aches and pains,
menstrual difficulties, headaches, heart disease, AIDS, cancers, gastric ulcer,
sprains, mental depression, senility, poor digestion, arteriosclerosis, blood