The Noni Juice Controversy

The Noni plant has been around for centuries and has been considered as one with great medicinal capacities by the natives. It has been used in a variety of ways to cure ailments such as arthritis and asthma. It has even been applied to some swollen parts of the body in order to heal it. It has relatively remained a folk knowledge until the 1990’s when the market was bombarded with Noni juice and Noni-based products.

It started off with the emergence of the Noni capsule from Hawaii then the Noni juice from the same place and later that from Tahiti. What sparked the controversy were the claims of the curative properties of Noni Juice. Eager marketers touted that it can cure various medical conditions prompting the US Food and Drugs Administration to take action against some manufacturers for declaring such statements. Violations were cited due to the lack of substantiated researches on the Noni juice’s medicinal properties.

It is said that up to now, the results of the tests of its curative effects on human beings are still to be presented for evaluation purposes. Until such time, the FDA recognition of Noni juice for medicinal and therapy purposes will still be a long way to go.

One triumph though for one of the manufacturers of Noni Juice is the certification that it has earned from the European Commission for Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General by having it listed as a novel food but there is no mention of any effects on individual’s health. The recognition was just for that particular brand of Noni juice only.

Several years back, Noni-based products were again embroiled in another controversial issue related to acute hepatitis. It was blamed to have been the cause of some incidence of that condition. An investigation was launched and its results vindicated the Noni juice.

The public has been made aware though of the ramifications of indiscriminate intake of food supplements not limited to Noni juice and other goods from the Noni tree. It also informed the consumers that the Noni juices available in the market have different concentrations and there are variations in the components thus precautions have to be taken.

There were still other lesser issues involving the product. One of which is the continued feud between the one produced in Hawaii and those coming from Tahiti with each one declaring that theirs is of the better quality and made in the highest standards. Another one would be the ones involving manufacturers whose Noni juices contain a higher level of concentration of some substances which when ingested by athletes might be a cause for disqualification.

It again came into the limelight when issues against multi-level marketing (MLM) came out as a result of some scam related to Ponzi schemes more commonly known as pyramiding. Most companies marketing Noni juice use network marketing as a means of distribution of the product and though there is legitimate business, people who cannot differentiate MLM’s from the pyramiding scams were alarmed.

Nevertheless, the Noni juice has weathered all those controversies and in due time approval from the regulatory boards will be attained. By then, the legitimacy of the Noni juice and other merchandise from that tree will be laid to rest.