Since the early age, men started questioning the world they lived in. The life and land it posses. That pushed them to the edge of the world to explore the unknown and to answer their limitless queries. Before the golden age of expedition, more tan two thousand (2,000) years ago, the aborigines of the Polynesian people left Southeast Asia, in pursuit of new horizons across the seas.
With their families and basic needs they also brought with them twenty seven (27) essentials varieties of plants necessary to support and sustain their life. Of this twenty seven (27) species, fourteen (14) of tem were food. The other plants they brought were for building materials and healing arts. One of them was Morinda Citrifolia known as “Noni”, its Hawaiian name, and probably the most significant of them all.

Noni has a lush, fruitful history and it was one of the most recurring and commonly used plants by the natives. Polynesian have practiced and utilized the use of noni for thousands of years, because they were already familiar with its broad and extensive medical applications. And they used every part of the plant to make and produce tonics, salves, and balms.

However, Polynesians were not only the one’s who have lore and experience on its medicinal purposes. It is also native throughout the portions of Southeast Asia and Australia, extending up to parts of India and China. In Tahiti Islands, this marvelous plant flourished in natural abundance, whether it is man-made or nature’s way, because of its unspoiled volcanic soil and clean air.

Ancient Ayurvedic manuscripts called noni “Ashyuka” which was Sansktrit for “longevity”. The texts elucidated and expounded that morinda citrifolia balances the body, stabilizing it in a state of perfect harmony.
During World War II, soldiers assigned in tropic Polynesian island were taught by the natives to eat plant fruit to sustain their strength.

Written documentation about the use and value noni as food dated back from seventeen hundred (1700) when Captain James Cook perceived and observed the fruit is consumed in Tahiti.

After the succeeding publication that indicated that noni fruit was commonly eaten in Fiji, Raratonga, Samoa, Australia, and India, it started to gain popularity in medicinal market as a subsequent alternative for drug products.

Many scientists started to study the medicinal value and heeling claims of this plant, especially the fruit itself and its juice.

In 1972, Maria Stewart, a scientist, reported that local Hawaiians resolved and give remedies to their medicinal problems by drinking its fruit juice. R.M Hickle, University of Hawaii, professor began a twenty (20) year study on the properties of noni. Then he pronounced in the 1990’s that the existence of an unknown molecule was responsible for the plant’s health value.

People began paying more attention to the fruit. Companies are now manufacturing and even stretching the use of fruits, barks, leaves, and seeds of the tree. In addition, a multi-level company called Morinda, Inc. started to market the products, since the demand for it is increasing dramatically.