Noni has been sold in the United States since the mid-1990s and interest in it has barely moved since. It is also one of the most over-claimed things in the supplement aisle, and an earlier version of this page contributed to that with an eleven-item list of conditions it supposedly helps. That list is gone.
We sell Tahitian Noni Juice. What follows is what the fruit is, what is in the bottle, and the two things worth knowing before you drink any.
What the fruit is
Noni is the fruit of Morinda citrifolia, a small evergreen tree that grows across Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific islands. It thrives in volcanic soil and tolerates salt spray and poor ground, which is why it turns up on coastlines and lava fields where little else fruits.
The fruit is roughly mango-sized, lumpy, and yellowish-white when ripe. It smells, by broad agreement, like a cheese that has gone wrong. This is not marketing self-deprecation, it is the single most consistent thing anyone says about noni.
Why it is always blended with something
Because of the above. Essentially every commercial noni juice is cut with other fruit juice, usually grape and blueberry, to make it drinkable.
That is worth knowing for a practical reason rather than a purist one: the proportion of actual noni varies enormously between brands, and a product that is mostly grape juice is mostly grape juice. Researchers who analysed a large number of noni juice brands found them broadly similar in basic nutritional profile, which tells you how much of what is in the bottle is the other fruit.
Tahitian Noni Juice is made by Morinda, a Utah company that has been producing it since 1996 and is now part of Partner.Co, the manufacturer behind most of what this store sells.
What is actually in it
Noni fruit is a reasonable source of vitamin C and notably high in potassium. It carries a range of plant compounds, the iridoids in particular, which are the class most of the research interest attaches to.
What it is not is a concentrated source of anything dramatic. It is a fruit juice with an unusual compound profile and a strong smell.
How much people drink
1 to 4 fl oz a day covers most of what is recommended and most of what people actually do. The manufacturer's own stated serving is on the product page and is the figure to go by, since it is specific to this product rather than to noni in general.
More is not obviously better, and the two points below are the reason to think about that rather than assume it.
The two safety points
These were in the original article, underneath the benefit list, which is exactly the wrong way round.
Potassium. Noni juice is high in it. For most people that is unremarkable or mildly useful. If you have reduced kidney function, or you take a medication that affects potassium, this is a specific reason to talk to your doctor before drinking it daily. Potassium is one of the few things where the gap between "fine" and "not fine" depends entirely on how well your kidneys are clearing it.
The liver question. There have been case reports over the years of liver problems in people drinking noni juice. European food safety regulators have examined this more than once and have not found evidence of a causal link at ordinary levels of consumption, which is genuinely reassuring and is not the same as nothing. If you have any liver condition, or take medication that affects the liver, raise it.
Beyond those two, reported effects are mostly digestive and mild. As with anything else here: if you are pregnant, nursing, or on prescription medication, ask a clinician rather than a website.
What we are not going to tell you
Which conditions it helps with. The earlier version of this page had a list, and the list was not supportable from the source it cited.
The honest position is that noni is a nutritious fruit with an unusual chemistry that has attracted real research interest, that the human evidence is thinner than the volume of writing about it suggests, and that people who enjoy it should drink it because they enjoy it.
If you want to see how we read this kind of evidence when it is our own supplier's, that is Reading the Research. And if you want the plant itself rather than the bottle, we wrote about the noni tree.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
More on this subject: Noni