Walking along a beach in Hawaii a n...

Walking along a beach in Hawaii a not many years ago, I literally stumbl across what I reflection was a bizarre looking fruit that reminded me of a translucent, white, obese hand grenade. As my organ of sights wandered to the fresh fruit in succession the tree, I noticed that it had a peculiar fragrance, yet the ripe fruits on the surface of land smelled -- as one botanical writer 100 years ago inflict it-"like decaying cheese." The strange fruit sparked my curiosity. I went back to my house of entertainment room and researched the useful plants of Hawaii, alone to discover the fruit was noN! I knew it was being touted as a "new herb," now dismissed it as one of many like latest-and-greatest cure-alls that sound too righteous to be true.

Still, having seen the strange fruit in the animal food I became more curious about its origins. gin. As I traveled, I began finding noni tree growing not single in Hawaii, but also in Trinidad, Costa Rica, Belize, Guatemala and Vietnam. I learned that noni is a commonly planted tropical tree used primarily as an ornamental plant for its broad, bright virid leaves, affording shade where it's stand in want ofed More important, however, the trees' peculiar tropical fruit was utilized by the agency of ancient Polynesian cultures for cheer dye and medicinal purposes.

Origins of noni

Noni, the Hawaiian and Tahitian name for this small tree is native to Southeast Asia, perhaps originating in Indonesia. Today it is place along the coastlines of many tropical regions. Noni's semens have a bladder-like cavity within, making them extremely buoyant -- able to stay afloat for month before reaching a distant shore suitable for gestation.

Older botanical literature pertains to noni as "Indian mulberry," although it is not related to the mulberry plant. Rather it is a member of the madder family (Rubiaceae) and is known to botanists as Morinda citrifolia.

Noni in traditional medicine

Traditional medicinal uses of noni are numerous and vary depending on the subject of location and local needs of the tribe In Malaysia, the ripe fruits were infused with water, then gargled for a sore throat. Charred, unripe fruits were applied with salt to treat gum conditions. The ripe fruit was used to provide external relief from carbuncles and painful boils and used internally to treat stomach ulcers

Noni is still an important folk medicine in succession Samoa, according to a 1991 field contemplation conducted by a German graduate observer Alexandra Dittmar. All parts of the tree are used. The fruits -- either alone or in combination with other botanicals -- are still used for treatment of diarrhea, worms, cough tuberculosis, inspection infections, fever with vomiting, sore throat with cough thrush, abscesses and as a general tonic during sickness.

In 1945 a botanical writer noted that upon several Pacific islands a decoction of mashed noni fruit, along with kava etymon and crushed sugar cane shoots was used as a treatment for tuberculosis. Noni fruit juice, diluted with water, was sometimes given to form participants ingesting another Polynesian botanical, kava kava, to help resolve into nausea.

The just discovered noni

Noni is undivided of the most widely used herbs in Hawaii, secondary only to aloe vera, according to a 1999 observe on complementary medicine use in Hawaii carried gone out by researchers at the Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii. Perhaps that is because noni is not a dietary addition fad on the islands.

In Hawaii, noni is typically prepared by dint of sealing the fruit in a glass jar and leaving it gone out in the sun for hours, or plane weeks. During the fermentation proces it let slips its odor and taste of the fresh-ripe fruits. The strained juice leavens into an alcoholic beverage and is taken as a general tonic.

The mostly common traditional use of noni in Hawaii is for treating cancer, diabetes and high offspring pressure. Its popularity in the 1990 l to its promotion for everything from kidney disorders to hypertension. This, in move round led to a scarcity of tree -- steady private yards were stripped of their fruits overnight.

After passage of the Dietary addition Health and Education Act of 1994 noni became widespread in the American market. Liquid, and newly encapsulated noni products have replaced the traditional noni concoctions.

The science behind noni

In latter years, scientists have begun to clinically validate noni's traditional use. An important animal contemplation by G. Liu and colleagues ground that two newly identified combines in the juice of noni fruit were "effective in suppressing" the transformation formation small cavitys into cancerous pre-tumors.

A 1999 inquiry by Hawaiian researchers found that a polysaccharide-rich intermix from noni fruit juice markedly enhanced the survival time of laboratory mice with a specific prototype of cancer, Lewis lung carcinoma. Although it did not have a direct anti-cancer consequence researchers observed that noni gripe [i]or[/i] grips back tumor growth through activation of the immune system

At least three other studies with lonely dwelling cultures or laboratory animals have shown positive anti-cancer imports A 1990 study also lay the foundation of noni may have analgesic (pain-relieving) and sleep-inducing effects