The Pharmacologically Active Ingredient
of Noni
By Dr. R.M. Heinicke;University of Hawaii
In The Bulletin, April 1972, Maria Stewart described how the Hawaiians
solved many of their
medical problems by drinking infusions of the fruit of the Noni tree (Morinda
citrifolia). The
missionaries, who frequently had to minister to the body as well as
the soul, were impressed with
the efficacy of these options. Yet identifying the pharmacologically
active ingredient of Noni ha been difficult - for an understandably
good reason. The active ingredient is not present in the
plant or fruit! Only after the potion has been drunk does the active
ingredient form. Sometimes!
My search for the active ingredient in Noni began with a series of studies on the pineapple plant. Since about 1972 I had been attempting to identify the unknown ingredient "bromelain", which gives crude preparations of this enzyme their potent pharmacological properties. (Sometimes!)
After many discouraging years of research I eventually identified
this ingredient as a new alkaloid
to which I gave the name "xeronine". Noticing that the clinical
claims of efficacy for bromelain and
Noni were practically identical, I tried the same techniques
on Noni fruit, a technique which I had
developed for isolating xeronine from the pineapple plant. The
technique worked! Not only was I
able to isolate the same compound from Noni fruit, but the yields
were excellent. Today Noni is
one of the best raw materials to use for the isolation of xeronine.
Xeronine is a relatively small alkaloid that is physiologically
active in the picogram range.
(Editorial note: a picogram is one trillionth of a gram.) It
occurs in practically all healthy cells
of plants, animals and microorganisms. However, the amount of
free alkaloid is minute, and is well
below the limits of normal chemical analytical techniques.
Even though Noni fruits have a negligible amount of free
xeronine, they contain appreciable
amounts of the precursor of xeronine. This precursor, which
I have named "proxeronine", is a
strange molecule. The molecular weight is relatively large,
namely about 16,000. In contrast to
most plant colloids, this colloid contains neither sugars, nor
amino acids, nor nucleic acids. Thus
most biochemists have overlooked this relatively abundant molecule
which occurs in most tissues.
Noni fruits also contain the inactive form of the enzyme
that releases xeronine from proxeronine.
Unless this pro-enzyme becomes properly activated, however,
Noni juice will cause few
pharmacological reactions. Fortunately, if Noni juice is taken
on an empty stomach, the critical
pro-enzyme escapes digestion in the stomach and enters the intestines.
Here the chances are high
that it may become activated.
Many years of research are still required to demonstrate
convincingly how xeronine functions at
the molecular level in a cell. In the meantime I can suggest
certain hypotheses which can act as a
guide in planning experiments. I am basing these hypotheses
both on clinical results with bromelain
pills as well as on a limited number of laboratory and animal
experiments carried out with pure
xeronine.
I am proposing that the primary function of xeronine is
to regulate the rigidity and shape of
specific proteins. Since these proteins have different functions,
we have the usual clinical situation
where administering one simple drug causes an unbelievably wide
range of physiological
responses.
The action which xeronine has on a person depends upon
which of his tissues has a suboptimal
level of xeronine. Thus xeronine can alleviate certain subsets
of almost any known disease. For no
disease, however, will xeronine be a panacea. A physiological
disease, for example senility, may
be caused by a deficiency or imbalance of a number of different
biochemicals as well as by
malfunctioning blood vessels, hormone systems, or immune bodies.
Only if the disease is
specifically caused by a lack of xeronine will xeronine alleviate
the symptoms of the problem.
I believe that each tissue has cells which contain proteins,
which in turn have receptor sites for the
absorption of xeronine. Certain of these proteins are the inert
forms of enzymes which require
absorbed xeronine to become active. Thus xeronine, by converting
the body's procollagenase
system into a specific protease, quickly and safely removes
the dead tissue from burns. It is for this
reason that aloes, bromelain and Noni are such effective treatments
for burns. Other proteins
become potential receptor sites for hormones after they react
with xeronine. Thus the action of
ginseng, bromelain and Noni in making a person feel well is
probably caused by xeronine
converting certain brain receptor proteins into active sites
for the absorption of the endorphin, the
well being hormones. Other proteins form pores through membranes
in the intestines, the blood
vessels, and other body organs. Absorbing xeronine on these
proteins changes the shape of the
pores and thus affects the passage of molecules through the
memanes. Thus the action of
bromelain, Noni, and ginseng in improving digestion may be ascribable
to this action. These are
just a few of the many exciting actions of this newly discovered
alkaloid. Since Noni is a potential
source of this alkaloid, Noni juice can be a valuable herbal
remedy.
There are some practical problems, however, in using Noni
juice as a medicine or tonic. If one is
dying and all other remedies have failed, then and only then
will the average person drink Noni
juice. The flavor of juice made from ripe Hawaiian Noni is terrible.
None of my colleagues would
touch the untreated juice. Even after I had removed most of
the disagreeable flavor (several
organic acids) from the juice, my colleagues still found it
unfit to drink. For a price, the odoriferous
chemicals can be removed from the Hawaiian variety. However,
other varieties grown in other
Pacific Islands are milder in flavor.
Another critical problem in using Noni juice as a medicine
or health tonic is timing. If the 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. For a seriously
sick person, taking the juice on an
empty stomach rarely poses a problem because the patient is
too sick to want to eat anything.
However, for the average person who wants to drink Noni juice
as a health tonic, timing is critical.
I would recommend taking 100 ml of Noni juice a half-hour before
breakfast. At this time the
juice will pass rapidly through the stomach and into the intestines,
where it may be converted into
the active enzyme. At any other time of the day, especially
at meal times, the primary effects of
drinking Noni juice will be psychological and caloric. Because
of the strong flavor, the
psychological effect might not necessarily be positive! To obtain
the maximum effect of the active
ingredient in Noni, I would recommend also that Noni juice not
be taken with coffee, tobacco or
alcohol. At times the combination of these materials and Noni
can give some unexpected side
effects. At other times the combination merely lowers the potentially
beneficial effect of xeronine.
Although the Hawaiians recommended both green fruit and
ripe fruit for treating various ailments,
my personal recommendation would be to use only the green fruit.
The green fruit has more of the
potentially valuable components and less of the undesirable
flavor. In light of the new information
on the action of xeronine, what are some of the possible applications
of Noni juice? First I should
make the caveat that for all of the possible applications which
I am listing, one must always add
the phrase "some types but not other types." Some of the problems
which drinking Noni juice
might favorable affect are: high blood pressure, menstrual cramps,
arthritis, gastric ulcers, sprains,
injuries, mental depression, senility, poor digestion, atherosclerosis,
blood vessel problems,
addiction, relief for pain and many others. Although this list
looks like a page torn out of traveling
medicine man's manual, it is probably conservative.
The old Hawaiian people were truly fortunate to have herbal
medical doctors who recognized a
valuable natural product and who knew how to administer this
medicine with the proper
psychological persuasion.