Noni

The scientific name of Noni: Morinda citrifolia L.

Family:  Rubiaceae

Name of Noni in different languages:-

English: nona, nino, cheese fruit, awl tree, Indian mulberry, Awl tree

Hindi: Ach

Malayalam: Manjanathi, Manja pavatta

Tamil: Noni

Plant description:

It is a medium sized tree or bush of about 3-9 m height. Leaf opposite, pinnately veined, blades membraneous, broadly elliptical, 5-17 cm long, 10-45 cm broad. Flowers perfect and bisexual. Small tubular white flowers are grouped together and inserted on the peduncle. Calyx tubular, truncated rim, extremely reduced, with small lobes. Corolla white, 5-lobed, the tube greenish white, 7-9 mm long, margin entire, obtuse or acute at the apex. Stamens five, scarcely excerted, alternate to the corolla lobes, shorter than corolla tube, equal, glabrous. Style excerted just beyond the corolla, about 15 mm long, exert. Ovary is inferior; 2 or 4 locular, narrowly obovoid. Fruit is densely clustered globose, syncarp fleshy, yellowish white, about 5-10 cm long and 3-4 cm in diameter, fetid when ripe. Seed posses distinct air chamber, ovoid to obovoid or reniform, viable even after floating in water for months.

Leaf Arrangement

Shape-oblong	Margin-Entire	Venation-pinnate

Useful plant parts:

Fruit, All parts

Medicinal uses:

Convulsions,  diabetes, painful urination,  liver disease, constipation,  enlarged spleen, swelling, asthma, arthritis,joint pain, cancer, cataracts, cough, colds, fever,  malarial fever,  nausea, smallpox, depression, digestive problems, and gastric ulcers, high blood pressure, infections, kidney disorders, migraine headache, premenstrual syndrome, stimulate menstrual flow, vaginal discharge during pregnancy and stroke.

Medicinal properties:

Anti-bacterial, antiviral, anti fungal, anti-tumor, anti diabetes, analgesic, anti inflammatory, immunity enhancing.

Propagation:

Noni can be propagated through seeds, cuttings and tissue culture. Since, it is a highly cross pollinated plant; there exists lot of variation between plants raised from seedlings. For raising seedlings, the seeds should be collected from fresh ripe fruits and sown in nursery beds. On storage, seeds loose viability in 6-8 months. Even though cuttings can be used for multiplication, they lack commercial productivity. Hence, tissue culture saplings are generally used for planting in commercial gardens.