Noni

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{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Great morinda, Noni | image = P Morc D1252.JPG | image_width = 230px | image_caption = Leaves, flowers, and fruit of Morinda citrifolia | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Magnoliopsida | ordo = Gentianales | familia = Rubiaceae | genus = Morinda | species = M. citrifolia | binomial = Morinda citrifolia | binomial_authority = L. }}

Morinda citrifolia, commonly known as Great morinda, Indian mulberry, Noni (from Hawaiian), or Aal (in Hindi), is a shrub or small tree in the family Rubiaceae. Morinda citrifolia is native to Southeast Asia but has been extensively spread by man throughout India and into the Pacific islands as far as the Hawaiian Islands.

Image:Noni fruit dev.jpg It grows in shady forests as well as on open rocky or sandy shores. It is tolerant of saline soils, drought conditions, and secondary soils. It therefore found in a wide variety of habitats: volcanic terrains, lava-strewn coasts, and clearings or limestone outcrops. It can grow up to 9 m tall, and has large, simple, dark green, shiny and deeply veined leaves.

The plant flowers and fruits all year round. The flowers are small and white. The fruit is a multiple fruit that has a pungent odor when ripening, and is hence also known as cheese fruit or even vomit fruit. It is oval and reaches 4-7 cm in size. At first green, the fruit turns yellow then almost white as it ripens. It contains many seeds. Despite its smell, the fruit is nevertheless eaten as a famine food and, in some Pacific islands, even a staple food, either raw or cooked. Southeast Asians and Australian Aborigines consume the fruit raw with salt or cook it with curry. Seeds are edible when roasted.

The Noni is especially attractive to weaver ants, which make nests out of the leaves of the tree. These ants protect the plant from some plant-parasitic insects. The smell of the fruit also attracts fruit bats, which aid in dispersing the seeds.

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Uses

In China, Japan and even Hawaii, various parts of the tree (leaves, flowers, fruits, bark) serve as tonics and to contain fever, to treat eye and skin problems, gum and throat problems as well as constipation, stomach pain, or respiratory difficulties. In Malaysia, heated noni leaves applied to the chest are believed to relieve coughs, nausea or colic. In the Philippines, juice is extracted from the leaves as a treatment for arthritis.

The noni fruit is taken, in Indochina especially, for asthma, lumbago and dysentery. As for external uses, unripe fruits can be pounded, then mixed with salt and applied to cut or broken bones. In Hawaii, ripe fruits are applied to draw out pus from an infected boil. Overripe fruits give extracts that regulate menstruation or ease urinary difficulties. In the United States and Canada "Noni" is marketed as a health food item and is usually sold at high prices as a specialty item. The fruit juice is used to make Tahitian Noni Juice; however, scientific data supporting Tahitian Noni's theraputic benefits have yet to come to fruition. As such, Tahitian Noni has not under gone FDA drug testing and can provide no definitive claims towards improving health and may only be marketed as a dietary supplement.

The bark of the great morinda produces a brownish-purplish dye for batik making; on the Indonesian island of Java, the trees are cultivated for this purpose. In Hawaii, yellowish dye is extracted from its root in order to dye cloth. In Surinam and different other countries, the tree serves as a wind-break, as support for vines and as shade trees for coffee bushes. The fruit is used as a shampoo in Malaysia, where it is said to be helpful against head lice. Nonis can be fed to pig livestock.

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