Most would be disregarded by this Polynesian medicinal plant by the utter smell and sight of the fruit that is produced from this tropical tree known as Noni: Morinda citrifolia. This Polynesian principal medicine has been used in Polynesian culture for 2,000 years.
Today, many on the Hawaiian islands have lost the medicinal connection to this amazing plant and only know it as a tree that produces a raw fruit that smells of blue cheese and they often are quick to remove it from their yards, but what they don't know is that there are many amazing healing benefits of Noni, that have been scientifically proven and demonstrates that Noni has medicinal healing properties in abundance.
Hawaiian Noni Farm, Kauai
This strong and hardy tree is from the family, which include such other plants as the coffee tree, gardenia, and cinchona. Noni is one of 80 different species in the Morinda genius and grows worldwide throughout the tropics today. It's origins strain from species in the areas of Borneo, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and Australia where it evolved and spread. Noni is a fruit bearing tree and grows in shady forests or in open sunny
rocky shores. It can withstand difficult terrains such as volcanic; and is tolerant of saline soils and drought conditions. The tree produces flowers and fruits year round and is one of only plants that produces fruit first and then the flowers grow out of the fruit, where it is pollinated, looses its flowers, and the fruit grows and ripens. The fruit of the tree is a multiple fruit and contains many seeds, it starts as a green fruit and then turns pale yellow to white when it is ripe. It gets its common names from the fowl smell that the fruit produces when ripe and most know it as cheese fruit or even vomit fruit as it's smell resembles that of a very strong blue cheese. The leaves are dark green, large somewhat oval shaped simple leaves with deep veins.
Traditionally, this fruit was consumed raw in times of famine for the indigenous people and provided them with enough sustainable nutrients to survive. Hawaiian tribes also used it in a variety of medicinal ways; internally for coughs, colds, liver disease, malaria, intestinal worms, and hypertension. Externally, they would use the leaves and fruit topically for pain, swelling, sprains, and to heal wounds.
Today, most people are familiar with Noni, only by the delicious Noni juice that is produced when the fruit is fermented and drank. This juice has amazing health benefits as well full of antioxidants and anti-bacterial properties; it helps in boosting immunity, relieving stress, and has been known to help prevent against cancer, but that isn't even the half of what Noni is capable of doing.
Noni Tree (Morinda citrofolia)
What Makes Noni Work so WELL?
Noni is a medicinal plant superstar containing over 165 different beneficial compounds in it's raw form and they have found that the pulp of the fruit is the most abundant in providing the medicinal properties of this plant. Noni in it's raw fruit pulp stage has been shown to have the highest antioxidant ORAC values or oxygen radical absorbance capacity for foods above that of other known super foods such as; Acai, blueberries, apples, oregano, and pomegranates. Eating a diet rich in antioxidants is one of the leading ways to ravage against physiological time and fight aging, and raw Noni fruit or dried Noni fruit leather is the way to go with a ORAC value of 340,000 ORAC/g compared to a mere 3,082 ORAC/g value found in apples and 2,400 ORAC/g value in blueberries. That's a huge difference when it comes down to how rapidly Noni can remove those UV free radicals from your body when your living in the tropics and exposed to strong UV sun rays year round.
Noni also has hit the big stage of scientific research on assisting with fighting against cancer and providing components needed for having healthy cells and cellular regeneration, making it a big candidate for cancer research. Noni contains high phytonutrients of Damnacanthal and Scopoletin two phytonutrients that help fight off pre-cancerous cells, stimulate T cell activity, reduce inflammation and binds with serotonin to keep levels high which has been a big assistant in relieving pain and depression that usually comes along with a cancer diagnosis.
Even with these amazing components, Noni is also loaded with Essential fatty acids, soluble and insoluble fiber, and 17 of the 20 amino acids that our body needs to produce healthy proteins in our body. Terpenes that help increase cell rejuvenation and Anthraquinone which helps in controlling infectious bacteria like E-coli, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus.
You think that is all that Noni can do, well your wrong. Studies have shown that the Terpenes and Scopoletin phytonutrients of Noni have helped athletes with repairing sprains and injuries quicker than the leading Western techniques of casts and bandages. Noni has been reported to be one of the strongest anti-inflammatory of plant medicine that humans have found, relieving pain from osteoarthritis, lower back pain, and repetitive motion injuries. Studies done in 2003, on the affects of 24 different plants used to treat inflammatory conditions and were shown to inhibit COX-1, a pro-inflammatory protein, showed that Noni was 75 percent as strong as morphine, yet totally safe and side effect free at reducing pain and inflammation.
There is one more awesome way that Noni is beneficial and that is externally via our skin. Noni when applied externally has been found to clear up acne, psoriasis and eczema skin problems. It has Anti- bacterial, fungal, and anti-histamine properties that help to clear up and soothe the irritated skin while providing Terpenes to increase cellular regeneration. When applied on scars, bruises, swelling, and wounds Noni has been researched and proven to have cleared up these skin irritations, healed sprains and injuries from athletes quickly, and prevented infection and healing of skin tissues. It is also used as a beauty remedy as well to reduce liver spots of old age and sun damage, provide collagen to the skin to help with fighting aging a anti-aging remedy and remove skin tags, moles, and wort's. This plant just keeps on giving in it's abundance to help heal our bodies.. and who said nature doesn't provide all that we need already?
Noni Tincture (Morinda citrofolia) from 'Ohana Green Witches
How can Noni Help my CF?
I have been using a tincture of Noni extract and tea from the leaves that our company 'Ohana Green Witches makes on a regular basis and it has helped me significantly in reducing the feelings and pressure of inflammation in my gut and my lungs. While also calming my nerves and restoring my nervous system since it has active ingredients that are neuroprotective and strengthen the nervous system and brain as a tonic.
I have recently started also using a Noni lotion from our friends at the Hawaiian Organic Noni farm on Kauai. They make dried Noni pulp fruit leather and Noni pulp lotion. Let me just say the lotion does wonders for relieving pain an tension in my neck, ribs, and lungs when I rub it all over my neck, back, and chest. I personally like using the Icy hot sport formula that they have that contains organic camphor and menthol crystals along with the Noni fruit pulp which allows the compounds of the Noni to be soaked in and work quicker on relieving the pain and inflammation. The Menthol and Camphor crystals of their formula gives the lotion that nice cooling and warming sensation similar to that of regular ICYHOT, but without all the other chemicals/ingredients that are added to ICYHOT.
Since Inflammation is pretty much a Cystic Fibrosis persons biggest issue through out the body having a strong anti-inflammatory organic plant medicine that works quick, efficiently, and without any side effects is definitely a must have on our daily medication list because I have to be in a lot of pain for me to take any form of Ibuprofen or Advil. Plus not only is this amazing plant working on reducing the inflammation and pain, but it is also helping with cellular regeneration, relaxing smooth muscle as a nervine, feeding our cells plenty of phytonutrients of fats and amino acids as well as loads of antioxidants which help keep our immunity up, another thing we CFer's need in abundance.
Noni Fruit from Hawaiian Noni Farm on Kauai (Morinda citrofolia)
There is also two more reasons I love Noni as a CF plant medicine because it also helps support our liver by cleansing the blood and removing toxins from the body. It contains soluble fiber that helps in regulating blood sugar which with several adult CF patients being diagnosed with diabetes as we get older this plant will help us in keeping our blood sugar under control and our pancreas working properly. My A1C has been at 5.8 for several years now which is below diabetic level and I barely take any insulin.
Last but not least, the best of it all is this plant fights specifically well against Staphylococcus aureus which is one of the leading bacteria bugs that likes to take up harbor in the lungs of Cystic fibrosis patients and colonize there. This bacteria causes many CF patients to get constant lung infections, bronchitis, and pneumonia causing further damage to the lungs and airways. It also means spending several weeks in the hospital on several high doses of IV antibiotics which are needed at times, but if we can use plants to help keep these bacteria's in our bodies in check that means less time using the strong IV antibiotics that our body can grow resistant too. Not to mention the side effect that the IV antibiotics do on your immune system and killing off all your good intestinal gut microbiome that helps support our immune system from getting sick in the first place. With plants our body processes them differently and therefore they do not have the same side effects of killing off our good gut bacteria depleting our immune systems which just starts a viscous cycle all over again of infection, but instead breaks down the bio-films of the bacteria, killing them off without damaging our immunity. Which makes antibiotic herbs my favorite way to control the bacteria in my body and reduce my exposure to infections that require stronger IV antibiotics that could be saved to save my life farther down the road because I won't have become resistant to them yet. I use several antibiotic herbs with guidance from a naturopathic doctor and my CF pulmonologist to assist me in reducing my Pseudomonas and my MRSA that are colonized in my lungs. I did have to learn about plant medicine the hard way, when I became really ill and western medicine was trying to help, but it was making it worse and creating a cycle of ongoing infections and I was tired of it. I began to start experimenting and being my own health advocate looking into alternative ways to help and although the damage to my lungs is done, it was the best lesson I could have learned. Now, my goal is to spread the word and teach other CF individuals about alternative medicines and teaching the community about all the medicinal plants that our all around them that can be used to reconnect us to mother earth and the true path of healing that was provided and intended for us all, and Noni is one of those amazing plant healers.
Noni Fruit & Flower (Morinda citrofolia)
Why DID I not KNOW this?
So your thinking why did I not know about this amazing plant already, well everyone knows how Big pharma doesn't want to harm there precious cash flows, so these amazing medicinal plants that our ancestors and natives have been using for centuries have been lost in communication because these days people are all about the quick fix of convenient over the counter chemically made synthetic drugs to elevate their reoccurring symptoms instead of really feeding there cells what they need long term like we used too. We have lost the ancestral communication of just using herbs and real food as our medicine to heal the underlying problems we are all facing these days with chronic inflammatory diseases; like diabetes, high blood pressure, and arthritis. All of which Noni helps support along with helping to restore the nervous system as a neuroprotective, so how can you go wrong. Well still spectacle, check out all the reviews and scientific evidence that Hawaiian Organic Noni Ohana has on their website here and you won't be disappointed, I sure wasn't! We have visited their farm several times and taken their free farm tour and we love their brand and Noni products. Highly recommend you check out the farm if you are on Kauai.
Well what I say is, give Noni a try and if you aren't the living proof of how well this plant works then just keep on doing what your doing and deal with the pain, or try it, love it, and help spread the word of alternative plant medicine and help us stop keeping it a secret!!!!
PLANTS are AMAZING!
If you are interested in trying the lotions or Noni fruit leather you can find the website here for the one's that I use and recommend to buy. If you would like some of our Noni plant extract, visit our website shop here, we will be happy to ship you some.
With lots of Love and Aloha,
~'Ohana Green Witches
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