Health fads come and go. While some remedies and concoctions have for one reason or another waned in popularity over time, others are still going strong. For instance, some roadside stalls today are actively promoting the teh tarik with "100%" tongkat ali, the much-touted herbal aphrodisiac.

The latest "wonder cure" on the market is noni (Morinda citrifolia). Unknown to many, the fruit, shoots, leaves and bark of the noni tree, also known as mengkudu in Malaysia, have been traditionally used by rural Malays to treat all kinds of conditions.

Public interest in noni in Malaysia began last October when Morinda (M) Sdn Bhd, multilevel company, imported Tahitian noni juice from the United States.

Sold as a juice or health supplement, it has enjoyed overwhelming success for its touted beneficial effects on the digestive, intestinal, respiratory and immune systems.

For the first half of this year, Morinda chalked sales of over RM105 mil.

As with most new products that become overnight retail success, there were rumours that noni has ill side-effects. To counter the adverse publicity, Morinda managing director Chong Sun Fu made trips to Miri, Sibu, Sandakan ,Tawau and Kota Kinabalu recently to dispel rumours that noni is toxic, radioactive and contains heavy metals. The company has 30.000 distributors nationwide.

Besides Morinda’s Tahitian Noni Juice, sold at RM200 per bottle (946ml), other brands on the market are Enrich’s Hawaiian Noni, Total Health Concept’s Noni Vegetable Capsules and Formula Dr Rodzi (noni juice made from Malaysian Mengkudu).

Next to flood the market with more noni products will be the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute’s (MARDI) cooperative, Ko-mardi, which will start commercial production of noni next month ad bring the price down to RM30 a bottle.

What is Morinda citrifolia?

It has been called a "magic fruit", but noni juice firms are careful not to make claims on its curative powers.

"The drink is for general maintenance of health because Hawaiian noni is helpful in building up the immune system," says Clement Chow, marketing manager of Enrich Resowella Malaysia Sdn Bhd which markets powdered noni.

Noni is a small evergreen tree which grows in open coastal regions and in forest areas up to 395m above sea-level (http:www.hawaiiannoni.com/html/noni/html). It can be found from India to Indi-China, Malesia (the botanic region including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei and Singapore) and the Pacific Island.

The plant is found in abundance in Hawaii where it thrives on lava-rich soil. Native to Asia, Australia and some Pacific island, noni was brought to Hawaii as a herbal plant by the early Polynesians.

The plant has a straight trunk, large, bright green and elliptical leaves, white tubular flowers and ovoid "grenade-like" yellow fruit.

The noni fruit can grow up to 12cm or more in length and has a surface covered by polygonal shaped sections resembling that of a small breadfruit. It turns creamy white to yellow when ripe and has a strong pungent odour and taste.

Native Hawaiians and other Polynesians were said to have relied on noni as folk medicine for over 2,000 years to treat blood sugar imbalances (or diabetes), high blood pressure, muscle aches and pains and headaches amongst other ailments.

Thus noni has been dubbed as the Painkiller Plant, Grand Morinda, Cheesefruit and Headache Tree.

In Peninsular Malaysia, there are 10 species of noni plants – there of them are trees and the rest, climbers (akar mengkudu). The species that are trees are : Morinda citrifolia, Morinda elliptica and Morinda corneri. These grow wild on sea shores and coastal lowlands but are sometimes cultivated.

Noni’s potent Ingredient

Dr Ralph M. Heinicke, a biochemist at the University of Hawaii the United States, learnt that Hawaiians drink infusions of the noni fruit for their medical problems.

"Identifying the pharmacologically-active ingredient of the noni has been difficult as it is not present in the plant of fruit. Only after the potion, has been drunk does the active ingredient form. Sometimes!"he says in the Pharmacologically Active Ingredient of Noni. (http://www.hawaiiannoni.com/html/xeronine.html)

Dr Heinicke’s search for the active ingredient in noni began when he was studying pineapple enzymes. Since 1972, he has been attempting to identify the unknown ingredient in "bromelain" which gives crude preparations of this enzyme their potent pharmacological properties.

After years of research, he eventually identified this ingredient as a new alkaloid – xeronine, which may play a key role in encouraging proper cell function and growth in the body.

Xeronine is formed in the large intestine where a chemical reaction occurs between proxeronine and proxeronase – two substances found in abundance in the noni fruit.

Dr Heinicke’s research showed that xeronine can help to enlarge the pores in the walls if human cells and enable nutrients to be absorbed more easily. Hence, he believes xeronine can improve the body’s ability to make use of dietary nutrition.

He recommends taking 100ml of noni juice half an hour before breakfast, as the juice will then pass rapidly through the stomach into the intestines. "If noni 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 that liberates xeronine."

Dr Heinicke warns that the juice should not be taken with coffee, tobacco or alcohol as side effects can occur and the beneficial effect of xeronine can be reduced.

While the Hawaiians use both green and ripe fruit, Dr Heinicke says the green fruit is better as it has "more potentially valuable components and less of the undesirable flavours."

He believes that drinking noni juice can alleviate high blood pressure, menstrual cramps, arthritis, gastric ulcers, sprains, injuries, mental depression, senility, poor digestion, atherosclerosis, blood vessel problems and pain.

In 1993, US food scientists John Wadsworth and Stephens Story were introduced to the noni fruit by a friend who had visited Tahiti. After more than three years of research, they developed methods for harvesting, processing, flavouring and bottling Tahitian Noni Juice

Local research on noni

Forest Research Institute of Malaysia research officers S.Vimala and Dr Mohd Ilham Adenan studied noni’s antioxidant properties two years ago. Their findings are reported in the latest issue of Journal of Tropical Forest Products, published by FRIM.

The researches screened 70 samples of different plant parts from 45 Malaysian species and discovered that noni has the highest antioxidant properties.

According to Dr Ilham, the leaf has slightly higher antioxidant activity than the fruit.

Two common species of noni – Morinda citrifolia and Morinda elliptica were studied.

"A high concentration of antioxidant means that mengkudu can be used to neutralise free radicals in the body,"he says.

The antioxidant compound, however, is still unknown. "We’re still in the process of identifying and isolating the active component; it’ll take some time," says Dr Ilham.

Once researches succeed in isolating the active component, Dr Ilham says companies which want to commercialise mengkudu production need not rely on the plant as the compound can be manufactured synthetically.

Assoc. Prof Dr Johari Mohd Saad, former head of University Malaya’s Biochemistry Department, has been doing research on noni for two years.

Among other things, his studies show that noni contains "a lot of components that are sensitive to light and heat."

In preparing the herb for traditional medicine, avoid drying it in the sun. This because ultra violet rays would cause changes in the component of the plant structure (some components might lose their activity while others become more active.)

Dr Johari says oven-drying noni at 45-60 C with circulating dry air would keep its components intact.

ON the traditional belief that noni is effective in returning the uterus to its original position after childbirth, Dr Johari says: "This is a fallacy; there is no scientific evidence on that."

On overdosage and effects relating to long-term usage, he says there is no clinical data on this yet.

2,000-year history

Pharmacist M.Rajen says noni has not bee banned by the US Food and Drug Administration. In fact, it regards it as "GRASS )Generally Regarded As Safe) in respects of its long history of use and no untoward effects."

Rajen, who is managing director of Total Health Concept which produces noni capsules, says there has been " a lot of verbal, sometimes extravagant claims on miracle cures of noni. These marketers prey on sick people like cancer patients. We’re against such claims."

Noni, he says, should be used "in the way it is meant to be used and not overused or problems will start." Overdosage, he adds, can cause diarrhoea.

He says that in ayurvedic medicine noni is used to reglate blood sugar level.

On public concerns that longterm consumption can cause kidney damage, Rajen says: "Noni was part of human nutrition some 2,000 years ago and no person had died from it nor from kidney disease."

Commercialising noni

Mardi has developed the technology on noni production and is in the midst of negotiating with a local company to develop a package deal in commercialising it, says its director-general Datuk Dr Mohamad Sharif.

The deal, which involves the cultivation, production and marketing of noni juice, will be finalised within a few months.

Meanwhile, local enterprises plan to take the commercialisation of noni to another stage – the production of haircare and skincare products, before year end.

Source: Majorie Chiew, The Star, 3.8.99