Morinda Citrifolia (aka Noni Fruit)

Exploring the Fruit's Origins

Throughout our site you will find us touting the remarkable benefits and the powerful, naturally occurring chemical components that make up our top-quality Noni Fruit Leather and Noni Lotionproducts made from noni fruit (Morinda Citrifolia). But we think the history of this amazing plant deserves a little attention of its own.

Morinda citrifolia is the scientific name of this attractive tropical plant that first arrived in the South Pacific through the colonization efforts of the ancient peoples of French Polynesia. They relied on the fruit for both nutritional value and for its natural healing properties.

These sea-farers were known to have utilized every part of the Noni plant for human consumption. They took the plants (Morinda Citrifolia) with them from island to island, and it is now eaten in raw and cooked forms by different people groups depending on cultural preferences.

Click Here to Read More!

Noni Fruit: Importance of Potency

One can find many herbs and fruits in nature that contain medicinal qualities. Generally speaking, they tend to be very specific, limiting to only 4-5 conditions. However, Noni Fruit, with over 165 beneficial compounds, has been used over the centuries by many cultures for health and wellness. Over the past 25 years, scientific research have discovered that noni fruit can address over 65 different conditions (as listed on the USDA’s website).

To accomplish this feat, the beneficial properties lie in the pulp of the raw noni fruit, not in fermented juices, dehydrated capsules or freeze dried capsules. How can this be you ask?

Click Here to Find Out!

Noni: Organic To The Roots

At Hawaiian Organic Noni, it’s more than just about selling an organic product. It traces all the way back to our roots. From the very start we strive to keep everything organic, good for our planet, and good for you! With our organic farming experience going back forty years, the techniques we use ensure that our soil is fertile, healthy, and full of nutrients. One key technique is mulching.

Why Mulching?

Mulching is one of the easiest ways to enrich soil fertility. Mulching essentially imitates the natural cycle of leaves, wood, and other plant matter building up on the ground to cover the soil. It retains moisture and creates an enticing environment for worms, the closest friend for healthy soil! On our organic farm on Kauai we make sure to continually mulch every single noni tree in our orchard. It keeps them growing and healthy, providing the trees with essential nutrients.

Try it in your own garden: Mulch around your plants and trees and you will see the positive results. You can use plant materials from around the yard like leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, even shredded paper and cardboard will work--minus the tape!

What else do you do besides mulching?

Mulching is one of the easiest ways to enrich soil fertility. Mulching essentially imitates the natural cycle of leaves, wood, and other plant matter building up on the ground to cover the soil. It retains moisture and creates an enticing environment for worms, the closest friend for healthy soil! On our organic farm on Kauai we make sure to continually mulch every single noni tree in our orchard. It keeps them growing and healthy, providing the trees with essential nutrients.

To see how we mulch on the Hawaiian Organic Noni Farm, check out the original blog on our website!

What’s your favorite Noni use? Let us know!

Why Does Fermentation Make Only Some Foods Healthier?

Fermentation is a health trend that seems to be here to stay. Kombucha, homemade kimchi and sauerkraut, yogurt and kefir, fermented pickles, and more are experiencing a major revival, and the scientific community is doing lots of research on the impact of fermented foods on the human body.

The results are promising, but there’s still a lot we don’t understand about the tradeoffs of eating fermented foods versus raw, steamed, or roasted vegetables. What we do know is that fermentation dramatically changes the chemical composition of foods — often for the better, but not always.

Because fermentation is so popular right now, many people have some questions when we say that fermented noni (usually found in the form of noni juice) is far less potent than products made from raw unfermented noni pulp. Not all fermented foods are created equal, however, and not all foods react to fermentation in the same way.

We wanted to answer some questions, explain why we never ferment noni fruit, and hopefully convince you of the power of raw noni, just as nature intended us to use it.

What is Fermentation?

If you are committed to finding natural ways to improve your health, you likely have at least a general sense of how fermentation works. To sum it up, fermentation is a natural decomposition process in which microbes convert carbohydrates into alcohol and/or acids.

In nature, fermentation is part of how fruits and vegetables are broken down so their nutrients can be returned to the earth. Wild bacteria and yeasts quickly begin their work once a fruit is damaged in any way (dropping to the ground, skin broken by an insect, or just by being picked).

Some fruits and vegetables are more prone to fermentation that others. Noni fruit begins to ferment within hours of ripening, just 3-4 days after being picked!

In nature, the fermentation process continues until the fruit or vegetable is completely broken down, with the help of molds, yeasts, and a whole host of bacteria. But many animals, including humans, tend to enjoy their fruits or vegetables partially broken down, and intervene in the process.

Animals Love Fermentation

Certain species of primates, birds, and rodents love alcohol, and will deliberately seek out fully or partially-fermented fruits! Lots of species have co-evolved alongside plants that produce a consistent source of alcohol. For many, there are positives and negative aspects of alcohol consumption — as there are for humans.

Humans figured out how to brew beer at least 5000-7000 years ago, around the same time when we learned how to make leavened bread. Indeed, beer might have even come first! Fermentation soon became one of the main ways humans “cook” food.

Most traditional cultures have at least one fermented food that is a staple of the cultural diet — often completely repugnant to outsiders, as in the case of kæstan hákarl (fermented, dried shark meat). More familiar foods include sauerkraut or kimchi (fermented cabbage from Germanic and Korean cultures, respectively), tempeh (fermented soybean curd), kefir (fermented milk).

These foods have their place in a healthy, balanced diet, and are linked to some significant health benefits.

Benefits of Fermented Foods

Countless nutritionists, foodies, and biologists have delved into the possible benefits of including more fermented foods in your diet. Click here for a great article that is pretty comprehensive.

The most commonly-cited benefit is the possibility for the live and active bacterial cultures found in traditionally-fermented foods to take up residence in your digestive tract. There are billions of bacteria in your digestive tract, most of which are necessary for complete digestion and good health.

But in today’s post-Pasteurian world (where most products are now pasteurized for safety), many Americans in particular are suffering from a shortage of these beneficial bacteria, resulting in lots of problems for our guts! Nature loves to fill a vacuum, so this often leads to bad bacteria taking up residence instead.

Many experts believe that including more traditionally-fermented foods (NOT pasteurized versions of them!) could help those good bacteria regain the high ground. The results could be more complete digestion of nutrients, reduced inflammation, and improved quality of life.

Learn the History and the Benefits of Fermented Foods in the original article.

Why Fermented Noni is 14x Less Potent

A great example of this kind of watered-down traditional food is noni juice. As I mentioned above,noni fruit starts to ferment within hours of ripening. This makes it problematic for people who want to sell noni in places where it doesn’t grow naturally.

Most companies solve this problem by actually accelerating the fermentation process, in order to create a stable product which can then be pasteurized, packaged, and shipped around the world. This is how noni juice is made. But fermenting noni fruit is a fairly recent invention, one which strips away most of the beneficial compounds that made it so valuable to traditional Polynesians.

Traditionally, noni was eaten raw, like a ripe plum or tomato, and that’s the tradition we adhere to here at Hawaiian Organic Noni. We spent years developing our slow dehydration process that preserves all the beneficial vitamins, minerals, and enzymes found in the raw noni pulp, in the form of a raw Noni Fruit Leather that is safe and shelf-stable without the need for pasteurization.

Why are we so committed to raw noni pulp? First, because that’s what’s supported by thousands of years of traditional use! Secondly, it’s scientifically proven that our solution is more potent.

We sent samples of our Noni Fruit Leather and a leading brand of noni juice to an independent lab, where they verified that our Noni Fruit Leather is 14x more potent. We believe this is due to the following problems with the process of making noni juice:

• Fermentation: Creates alcohol which destroys 50% of the beneficial compounds and enzymes
• Pasteurization: Heat destroys enzymes, antioxidants, and other beneficial micronutrients
• Dilution: Fermented noni tastes unpleasant, so it’s usually masked with fruit juice or sugar

You can learn more about the problems with noni juice by clicking here, and read about reasons to switch to raw noni here!

Fermentation is complex, and we don’t fully understand how fermented foods work in the body yet. For now, a good rule of thumb is to enjoy fermented foods that have been eaten by traditional societies for thousands of years: sauerkraut, kefir, kimchi, tempeh, etc. But remember that pasteurized versions by no means have the same benefits.

For foods that have always traditionally been eaten raw, like noni, stick with a raw food version such as Hawaiian Organic Noni Fruit Leather!

Noni Fruit, Potassium, and You

Morinda citrifolia, also known as Noni fruit, is a powerful food for healing. But recently, Noni has come under fire for the high levels of potassium it contains, which can be dangerous to some people. I want to address what small risk there is, clear up some misconceptions, and assure you that for most people, Noni fruit is beneficial in part because of its potassium levels.

Here are some facts about potassium, Noni fruit, and how they interact in your body.

Noni Fruit is a Good Source of Potassium

One of the many beneficial compounds in raw Noni fruit is potassium. Potassium is very important for the body, and the Institute of Medicine recommends that adults get 4.7 grams of potassium a day. That’s quite a bit!

For comparison, apples contain .2 grams of potassium, bananas contain .5 grams, and one serving of Hawaiian Organic Noni fruit leather contains .06 grams. If your body processes potassium normally, you’d have to eat a LOT of Noni Fruit Leather to even reach the recommended daily value, much less exceed it!

Here are just a few of the benefits of potassium in the body:

• Reduced risk of stroke
• Lower blood pressure
• Protects against loss of muscle mass
• Preservation of bones
• Reduced risk of kidney stones

Symptoms of potassium deficiency include weakness, fatigue, muscle cramps, bloating, constipation, cardiac arrhythmia, and more.

For most people, the challenge is getting enough potassium, not worrying about getting too much.

Click here to learn why too much potassium can be dangerous for some people

Not All Noni Products are Created Equal

All of the cases linking Noni with dangerous levels of blood potassium were cases of individuals taking Noni juice. None of these cases are related to raw Noni, or Noni Fruit Leather made from raw Noni pulp. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case.

Noni juice is usually mixed with other kinds of fruit juice, or artificially sweetened to mask the taste. The added sugars cause blood sugar spikes, which actually weaken the kidneys. Diabetes is a huge risk factor for kidney disease, and people who have diabetes or who are at risk shouldn’t drink fruit juices with added sugar.

But Noni fruit leather contains no added sugars at all, and actually improves body’s ability to process potassium.  Research has identified over 165 beneficial compounds in the raw pulp of Noni Fruit.  Noni Fruit Leather from Hawaiian Organic Noni is raw food to feed the cells of the body. It contains compounds that normalize blood pressure, strengthen the heart, and fight diabetes by stabilizing blood sugar levels.

These benefits can even help get you off some of those medications that artificially raise blood potassium levels!

Noni juice is also fermented in order to preserve it, a process which destroys many of these beneficial compounds. It’s easy to see how Noni juice could worsen the body’s ability to process potassium, by causing blood sugar spikes and not supporting the kidneys and heart.

But Noni Fruit Leather is a raw, whole food, containing beneficial levels of potassium. Potassium is necessary for a healthy body, and many people are deficient in it. For most people, Noni is a great supplement for many nutrients, including potassium.

Noni Can Reduce Stress and the Subsequent Effects

Most people can relate to being stressed at some point or another, and it is no secret that stress can affect a person’s body and mind in countless ways.  Unfortunately, stressors can come in many forms such as workload, relationships with friends and co-workers, busy schedules, finances, illness, and family concerns.  The effects of stress are many, but the most common include:

•  High blood pressure
•  Frequent sickness
•  Irritability
•  Tension headaches
•  Neck and back aches
•  Stomach problems
• Trouble sleeping

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the best way to alleviate stress is simply to take care of oneself.  This includes eating a healthy and well-balanced diet, exercising regularly, sleeping enough, allowing breaks when necessary, and maintaining a normal routine.  By keeping stress at a low, manageable level, most health effects associated with it are eliminated.  

Keeping stress and its effects in check can be made even easier with the help of Hawaiian Organic Noni’s Fruit Leather.  It not only contributes to a healthy diet by providing a high concentration of powerful nutrients, but it can also help ease the other negative side effects of stress such as high blood pressure, sickness, irritability, and stomach problems. 

Although the use of noni fruit for its medicinal powers appears to date back for millennia, studies in the past 50 years indicate noni’s power in relieving high blood pressure.  It is so remarkable, in fact, that one doctor reported his own blood pressure decreasing from 185/110 to 150/90 in less than one day, adding that it continued to decrease to a healthy level over the following days. 

Historically, noni fruit was eaten raw to treat ailments like upset stomachs and other digestive problems.   Noni is even recognized as having been used as a home remedy for stomach ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome, revealing some of its healing power.  In addition to stomach problems, these records—and current testimonials—report the benefits of using noni fruit to help with moods, aches, and other pains, as well. 

Hawaiian Organic Noni products have the purest and most concentrated form of the fruit that has a long shelf life and requires no refrigeration.  Unlike other noni products, Hawaiian Organic Noni products are made from the nonfermented pulp of Noni in order to maintain all the enzymes and nutrients, and they come in a variety of forms— Noni lotions, Noni BioBandage, edible Noni Fruit Leather, and even a full line for pets.

To help relieve stress, include Hawaiian Organic Noni as part of your healthy diet and habits.  Noni Fruit Leather is a great way to help lower blood pressure, improve mood, and alleviate stomach problems.  Easing ailments can help ease stress, and calming the side effects of stress can help you get back to feeling great.

Click HERE to learn more about Noni Fruit Leather and how it can reduce your stress today!

It’s a Fruit, It’s a Lotion, It’s a Skin Saver: Noni to the Rescue

If you have a stubborn skin condition from which you can’t find relief, or if you prefer the healing power of nature to man-made synthetics, you have a friend in noni, a remarkable fruit traditionally used by natives of the South Sea Islands for skin protection and nutrition. Lavender Noni Lotion treats a variety of skin concerns, from more mundane bruises, itching, acne, and sunburns, to skin infections, parasites, fungi, psoriasis, and eczema (dermatitis).

Mankind has created superb civilizations, skyscrapers, and technologies. We have discovered how to save lives via surgery, how to travel to the moon and beyond, and we have even unraveled many of the miniscule mysteries of DNA. However, we cannot compete with the purity and sometimes the results of nature. Manmade medicines often come with side effects, some minor and some unfortunately rather significant.

Our noni is organic, a whole food product, and does not contain the potential harm that comes from synthetic additives, preservatives, or chemicals. Noni Lavender Lotion goes through our unique low heat process to preserve its essential enzymes and is non-fermented to maintain its quality and potency.

Lavender Noni Lotion is rich in a naturally occurring chemical called scopoletin, a pain-relieving agent that mitigates the discomfort of sunburn and other skin soreness. Noni lotion also contains naturally occurring antihistamines, which soothe rashes and regulate allergic reactions of the skin. Additionally, noni wields antibacterial properties that combat bacterial skin infections. The list goes on, as noni packs a punch with anti-inflammatory agents that reduce skin redness, roughness, and chapping. Your skin may very likely even look younger with regular noni use, as the fruit possesses antioxidants effective in slowing the aging process of skin cells.

You may notice a theme emerging: noni is impressive because it is powerfully effective. We’ve been delighted to receive an abundance of testimonials, sharing stories of Lavender Noni Lotion’s success in treating previously severe and unrelenting cases of acne, psoriasis, eczema, and other interruptive and sometimes anguishing ailments.

Here’s some additional highlights of this most laudable of lotions. Not only healing maladies of the skin, noni lotion provides nourishment. It promotes skin regeneration, stymies brown spots and freckles, and can eliminate age spots with regular use. Our lotion is water-based, as opposed to oil-based. Therefore, it is easily applied and you will experience better absorption and penetration of the skin. A nice bonus -- noni lotion is an excellent exfoliator and cleanser, and its emollients make skin smoother. Noni helps burned and sunburned skin heal fast and often with little or no scarring.

Suffice it to say, we’re fans of noni and its natural healing and beautifying capabilities. Thank you for taking the time to learn about Lavender Noni Lotion. We hope you will give it a try and discover how nature can be of service to your needs.

You can learn more at http://www.real-noni.com

Noni Fruit Farm Interview with Steve Frailey from Hawaiian Organic Noni

This video is an exclusive interview with Steve Frailey of Hawaiian Organic Noni.

Noni Fruit Health

Popeye the Sailor Man & Spinach

           

Who hasn’t heard of Popeye the Sailor Man? His strength came from a can of spinach. Spinach contains non-heme iron, the form of iron that is not readily absorbed unless a person is deficient or it is consumed in combination with heme iron (animal products) or vitamin C. Not only is the form of iron not easily absorbed in spinach, but spinach contains compounds that bind with iron and interfere with its absorption. This article will further explore iron’s absorption and distribution. Because vitamin C increases nonheme iron’s absorption, there is no doubt that Noni Fruit Leather, rich in both iron and vitamin C is important. This article is about noni fruit health benefits.

Interference

            The absorption of nonheme iron is affected by many dietary factors. Oxalic acid in vegetables and phytic acid as well as additional factors found in grain fibers can bind iron and decrease its absorption. In tea, tannins (polyphenols) reduce the absorption of nonheme iron. If someone has an iron deficiency, the intake of tannins should be watched and fiber intake should be kept within current recommendations. Additionally, zinc supplements will interfere with the absorption of nonheme iron since zinc and iron compete for absorption.

Iron Needs & Absorption

            The body’s need for iron is the single most important element affecting nonheme iron absorption. Iron needs increase:

•   During growth and pregnancy;

•   During a state of iron deficiency; and

•   At high altitude due to the air’s lower oxygen concentration resulting in the increased concentration of hemoglobin in the blood.

Where there are inadequate iron stores, the main protein that transports iron in the blood easily binds additional iron from intestinal cells, moving this iron into the bloodstream. On the other hand, when there are adequate iron stores and the protein that binds iron in the blood is totally saturated with iron, little is absorbed from the intestinal cells where iron stays bound.

            It is through this mechanism that iron, and the nonheme form in particular, is only absorbed as needed under normal circumstances. Intestinal cells have a two to five day life cycle. If iron is not needed, it will be excreted from the iron that is stored in intestinal cells. Even though high doses of iron is toxic, under normal dietary conditions in the majority of people it is carefully regulated.

Distribution

            The hemoglobin molecules of red blood cells contains the majority of iron in the body. The bone marrow stores some, and a small amount is found in other body cells, for example the liver, to store it. The iron found in these body stores can be mobilized if iron is needed. However, these iron stores can be depleted if there is a chronically inadequate intake of dietary iron.

            In light of the fact that iron deficiency remains a worldwide problem, its absorption is an important factor. Even though a food may be rich in iron does not mean it will be absorbed. The form of iron as well as interference with anti-nutrient compounds and mineral interactions all affect absorption. Taking a specific mineral supplement will interfere with the absorption of other essential minerals. It is for this reason natural supplements are most effective. Studies confirm that noni, a fruit rich in iron, selenium, zinc, and copper contains no known anti-nutrient compounds in its leaves or fruit. It is also a rich source of vitamin C which increases iron absorption. This makes Noni Fruit Leather, developed by Hawaiian Organic Noni using a low-heat dehydration method, an ideal source for iron.