Question

A friend, who has breast cancer, has told me that she is using "Noni". I have low grade, stage 3 or 4 endometrial stroma sarcoma. Is there any clinical advantage of using this plant extract to supplement other treatments?

Answer

Noni (Morinda citrifolia) is a tropical plant found primarily in the Polynesian islands. A large number of health claims have been attributed to the juice of the noni tree. Dried extracts are also marketed. As with most "health food" supplements, the validity of health claims attributed to noni have not been validated. Marketers of health food supplements are not required by the US Food and Drug Administration to provide proof of health food claims for supplements.

The large number and diversity of conditions for which benefits are ascribed to noni fruit juice and extract is not unusual for health food supplements, but they should raise skepticism among consumers. These claims are as diverse as various types of cancer, allergies, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, and traumatic brain injury. A search of the medical literature shows that there are no published reports of clinical trials of noni for use in the treatment of any disorder, including cancer. There is one ongoing clinical trial in patients with advanced cancer for which there is no other treatment. It is being run by the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM); no results are available yet.

This lack of proof of efficacy should not be interpreted to mean that noni might not be effective, only that it has not been rigorously tested in patients with cancer. Indeed, many of the drugs used to treat cancer were originally isolated from plant sources. Noni extracts and substances isolated from noni have had limited testing in laboratory and animal models of cancer. There are a few reports of antitumor activity in these models. However, great caution should be exercised in attempting to extend these very limited observations to human clinical use.