The molecules of life: noni, nitric oxide and glucosamine

Morinda citrifolia, the “sacred plant”

During the Han dynasty in China, two thousand years ago, there were written documents describing the benefits of noni. This plant has been used for over 1,500 years by Polynesians as their most important traditional medicine.

From among the plants that grow verdant in these islands, noni is the mother of all medicinal plants. Although it grows throughout the South Pacific islands, the best noni grows in the land covered by highly nutrient volcanic ashes, in the exotic islands of Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, Marquesas, Cook, Solomon, Samoa, and Hawaii.

For more than 2,000 years, Polynesian healers have used noni leaves, roots, bark, flowers and fruits to prepare effective medicines against hundreds of diseases.

Noni contains vitamins, minerals, oligoelements, enzymes, beneficial alkaloids, co-factors and plant sterols. In addition, noni leaves and roots contain the full spectrum of amino acids, which means that all noni products are a perfect and complete source of protein.

The Kahunas (Hawaiian healers) and traditional medicine aficionados use this plant for a variety of health problems: as pain relief, against sinusitis, arthritis, digestion problems, colds, flu, encephalitis (and migraines), various infections, menstrual problems, skin conditions, heart problems, diabetes mellitus and to disinfect wounds.

Doctor Isabella Abbot, a professor at the University of Hawaii, confirms the benefits of this plant against diabetes, high blood pressure, tumours and several other health conditions.

The multiple traditional uses of this plant have been confirmed by modern science.

Research carried out in Western countries about this plant date back to 1950, when the scientific publication Pacific Science noted that the noni fruit had strong anti-bacterial properties. Repeated researches by experts and documented in the Planta Medica magazine have confirmed that noni can soothe pain. The Cancer Letter magazine has noted that the Keio University and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, in Japan, have isolated a new anthraquinone compound from Morinda citrifolia, which means that noni has inverted pre-cancerous cells into healthy ones.

A report presented in 1992, at the 84th annual convention of the American Association for Cancer Research, in San Diego, California, and published in “Proceeding of the American Association for Cancer Research”, confirms “the anti-tumour activity of Morinda citrifolia on Lewis lung carcinoma inoculated in mice through the peritoneum”. In this study, laboratory mice were inoculated with Lewis lung carcinoma. The mice treated with noni lived 105% to 123% longer than controls; approximately 40% of these mice lived for more than 50 days after treatment.