International Journal of Noni Research - Noni Family

P. Rethinam et al. Noni (Morinda citrifolia L.) - the Miracle Fruit - a holistic review
95% the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Saludes et al., 2002). The
major components identified in the hexane extract were Ephytol, cycloartenol,
stigmasterol, b-sitosterol, campesta-5,7,22-trien-3-b-ol, and the ketosteroids,
stigmasta-4-en-3-one and stigmasta-4-22-dien-3-one. Furthermore, they showed
that the anti-microbial effect is highly dependent on the stage of ripeness and
on processing, being greater when the fruit is ripe, without drying. The anti
microbial activity was more pronounced with M.citrfolia than M .pubescens
(Mathivanan and Surendran 2006).
Several anthraquinone compounds in Noni roots are all proven antibacterial
agents. These compounds have been shown to fight against infectious bacterial
strains such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus morgaii, Staphylococcus
aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp. and Shigella sp.
(Mohtar et al., 1998; Jayasinghe et al., 2002). These antibacterial elements
within Noni are responsible for the treatment of skin infections, colds, fevers,
and other bacterial- caused health problems (Atkinson, 1956, Ancolio et al.,
2000). Bushnell reported on the antibacterial properties of some plants
found in Hawaii, including Noni. He further reported that Noni was traditionally
used to treat broken bones, deep cuts, bruises, sores and wounds. Extracts
from the ripe noni fruit exhibited antibacterial properties against P. aeruginosa,
M. pyrogenes, E. coli, Salmonella typhosa, Salmonella montevideo, Salmonella
schottmuelleri, Shigella paradys (Bushnel et al., 1950; Dittmar,1993).
Leach et al. (1988) demonstrated that acetone extracts of M. citrifolia
showed antibacterial activity. The wide spread medicinal use of these plants
would suggest that they do contain pharmacologically active substance and
alternative methods of extraction and screening should be carried out to find
the major bioactive components in the plants for the purpose of new drug
development. Locher et al. (1995) reported that selected plants including M.
citrifolia have a history of use in Polynesian traditional medicine for the treatment
of infectious disease. The scopoletin, a health promoter of Noni inhibit the activity
of E. coli that is commonly associated with outbreaks resulting in hundreds of
serious infection and even death. Noni also helps stomach ulcer through inhibition
of the bacterium H. pylori (Umezawa, 1992).
Another species of Morinda namely M. tinctoria have excellent antimicrobial
activity against various human and plant pathogenic bacteria, and fungi. The
chloroform fruit extract of M. tinctoria exhibited high antimicrobial activity
against the human pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans. Further the
same extract also significantly inhibited the spore germination and mycelial
growth of plant pathogenic fungi viz., R. solani, B. oryzae, F. oxysporum and
C. lunata (Surendiran, 2004).
Intl. J. Noni Res. 2007, 2(1-2) 24