sometimes This year, BBC Yoruba interviewed a family who lost one member to hospital after eating cassava peeling. During the interview, the woman said that she had nothing to eat so she went and picked cassava peelings, dried them, powdered them and ate them as “amala”. It broke my heart and I wished she had fermented the peelings. Raw cassava contains cyanide which is toxic if ingested, so it is fermented to make it safe to eat. Right now the situation is really tough. People are hungry. Let’s stay hopeful. This difficult time will pass.
In 2021, I started a series called Medicinal Plants in Nigeria. It has been a long series. Since I have talked about Stevia and Monk Fruit, I feel the urge to talk about medicinal plants again from time to time. This time, I will be discussing exotic plants with high medicinal properties, the seedlings of which can be bought in Nigeria and planted at home.
Have you ever tried noni juice? It’s a very popular drink. This week’s topic is this plant. Morinda citrifolia is a fruit-bearing tree in the Rubiaceae family of coffee. It is the plant that bears the noni fruit. It is found in the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, Australia, and India. Native peoples used this fruit as an emergency food during times of famine. That’s why it is also called “hunger fruit.” It is fire, flood, and drought resistant. If the tree burns down, it will grow again and produce fruit abundantly all year round.
Native peoples of Southeast Asia and Australia eat the fresh fruit salted or cooked with curries. The seeds are eaten roasted. In Thai cuisine, the leaves, called bai yaw, are used as a leafy vegetable and are the main ingredient of kaeng bai yaw cooked in coconut milk. The fruit, luk yaw, is added as an ingredient in some versions of green papaya salad. In Cambodia, the leaves are an essential ingredient in fish amok, the national dish.
In traditional pharmacopeia, the fruit is credited with preventing and curing a variety of illnesses, primarily for stimulating the immune system and fighting bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal infections.
Polynesian healers have used the noni fruit for thousands of years to help treat a variety of health issues, including diabetes, high blood pressure, pain, burns, arthritis, inflammation, tumors, the effects of aging, and parasitic, viral and bacterial infections. In Samoan culture, all parts of the plant are used to treat a variety of ailments, and noni is one of the most frequently used plant medicines in Hawaii.
I spoke with Damilare Adewui, CEO of DAMADES GLOBAL RESOURCES, who grows noni here in Nigeria. He told me that noni has wound healing properties. He says that men often buy noni leaves from him after being instructed by the hospital to speed up the healing of their broken bones. He told me that the plant is good for arthritis, libido, lowering blood sugar levels, and more.
Noni has gained attention as a dietary supplement. A variety of beverages (juice drinks), powders (dried ripe or unripe fruit), cosmetics (lotions, soaps), oils (from the seeds), and leaf powders (encapsulated or for tablets) have been introduced into the consumer market. Perhaps the most popular is the juice. According to a research review published in Foods in April 2018, in the first 12 years of noni’s commercial availability, more than 108 million gallons of juice from one brand alone were consumed in more than 80 countries.
Like many of the best things in life, noni has a bit of a foul odor. Noni generally has a pungent, astringent taste. For this reason, the fruit has been nicknamed “cheese fruit” and “vomit fruit.” Garlic’s ability to prevent certain cancers and lower blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure is due to the presence of the sulfur-containing compound allicin, which is the main component of fresh garlic’s odor. Garlic without allicin is like Samson with a shaved head. Try to love the plant no matter what its faults are, because in most cases, its healing properties lie in its faults.
“The noni fruit has been used medicinally for thousands of years to boost immunity and remove toxins from the body,” says Manoj K. Ahuja, MD, of Fortis Hospital. It’s packed with powerful antioxidants, including vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B3 (niacin), and iron. “Many patients have benefited from noni juice, and many feel like there’s something magical going on with it because it affects so many systems in the body,” says Mona Harrison, MD, a pediatrician in Baltimore.
A study by Dusanka Kitic et al. titled “Anti-cancer and chemopreventive effects of active compounds in Morinda citrifolia L.: a comprehensive update” reinforces noni’s potential as a safe and effective option in cancer prevention and treatment. This review highlights the need for further research into noni’s anti-cancer properties and hopes to spur additional studies and clinical trials to validate and expand these promising findings.
A study entitled “Potential Health Benefits of Noni Juice: A Review of Human Intervention Studies” by Brett J. West et al. concluded that the weight of evidence from human studies suggests that noni juice has greater antioxidant activity than other fruit juices acting as placebos. This activity and its interaction with the immune system and inflammatory pathways likely explain many of the health benefits observed with noni juice. These health benefits include protection from tobacco smoke toxicity (e.g., DNA protection, normalization of blood lipids, suppression of systemic inflammation, reduction of homocysteine), improvement of joint pain and mobility, increased physical endurance, improved immune activity, inhibition of AGE accumulation, weight management, maintenance of bone health in women, inhibition of blood pressure, and improved gum health.
Let’s look at some of its advantages:
- Contains powerful antioxidants
Noni juice is known to be high in antioxidants, which help prevent cell damage caused by molecules called free radicals.
Researchers believe that the potential health benefits of noni juice are likely related to its powerful antioxidant properties. The main antioxidants found in noni juice include beta-carotene, iridoids, and vitamins C and E.
Iridoids, in particular, have demonstrated powerful antioxidant properties in test-tube studies, and research suggests that a diet rich in antioxidants, such as those found in noni juice, may reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
- May lead to improved immunity
Noni juice may support immune health. Like other fruit juices, it’s rich in vitamin C, which supports the immune system by protecting cells from free radical damage and environmental toxins. Many other antioxidants in noni juice, such as beta-carotene, may also improve immune health. A small, 8-week study found that healthy people who drank 12 oz (330 ml) of noni juice daily had increased immune cell activity and reduced levels of oxidative stress.
