Noni Plant
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The Noni Plant is usually grown as a small tree or shrub. It is evergreen and has really nicely shaped, shiny, large leaves. In general Noni trees don't get any taller than about 10 feet but on the very fertile soil of the Big Island of Hawaii, with it's moist climate, Noni can grow sometimes into 10 foot tall trees.
Noni, which is also known under its scientific name Morinda Citrifolia, has amongst some people a bad reputation for the aroma that the fruit puts out. This aroma develops when the fruit turns from green to yellow and later white.
Traditionally the fruit was either picked in its yellow stage (when it is ripe, but hasn't turned soft yet), then packed in a glass jar, which is tightly sealed and left in the sun. (see more under How to make Noni Juice) or some picked the fruit before its ripe, left it to ripe in their home, smashed it up, strained it and used that juice.
How did the Noni Plant get to Hawaii?
When the Marquesan voyagers came to Hawaii somewhere between 500 and 750 A.D, Hawaii was supposedly uninhabited. The Polynesians, who first settled in Tonga and Samoa at around 1500 B.C, before traveling to the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, Easter Islands, Hawaii and New Zealand were of Asian origin. Those settlers brought plants and animals on their voyages.
The Noni plant (or Indian mulberry) was one of them. Even though Hawaii traditional medicine has used over 300 species of plants for remedies, only a very small number were used frequently. Noni was the second most frequently used medicinal ingredient in ancient Hawaii.
Hawaii said to be almost "disease-free" before contact with the west in the late 17th century and many of the Hawaiians contributed a lot of this fact to the medicinal properties of Noni.
What was Noni used for?
All different plants of the Noni tree, the roots, the bark, the leaves, the flowers, the seeds and the fruit were used for different medicinal applications in 40 known and recorded herbal remedies. Even a Tongan legend says that the god Maui was brought back to life by having placed Noni leaves on his body.
Noni bark and Noni roots were also used as a dye and the raw fruit was eaten in times of famine.
More information about the traditional uses of the Noni plant
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