Anti-inflammatory and Potential Cancer Chemopreventive Constituents of the Fruits of Morinda citrifolia (Noni)

Morinda citrifolia L. (Rubiaceae), known as “noni”, is a small tree that grows widely across Polynesia. The roots, barks, stems, leaves, and fruits have been used traditionally as a folk medicine for the treatment of many diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer. Furthermore, “noni juice”, which is made from the fruits of this plant, is widely consumed today for the purported prevention of lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiopathy, and cerebral apoplexy caused by arteriosclerosis.2 In this paper, we report the isolation and charac-terization of three new compounds, 1,5,15-tri-O-methylmorindol, 2-O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)-1-O-hexanoyl-β-D-gluropyranose, and 2-O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)-1-O-octanoyl-β-D-gluropyranose, and 10 known compounds, 2, 3, and 6-13, from a methanol (MeOH) extract of the fruits of M. citrifolia L., as well as their inhibitory effects on TPA-induced inflammation in mice and on the EBV-EA activation induced by TPA. This is only the third report of anthraquinones in the fruits of M. citrifolia.

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