This smell decreases as the fruit is fermented and the juice is prepared. The taste is also greatly improved when using the traditional process. Noni is receiving more and more attention from modern herbalists, physicians, and high-tech biochemists. Scientific studies within the last few decades lend support to the Hawaiian and Polynesians' claims of its unusual and potent healing power. Some of the health-related compounds that have been isolated from noni are Morindone, Morindine, Acubin, terpene compounds, L. Asperuloside various anthraquinones, Alazarin, Caproic acid, Caprylic acid, Scopoletin, Damnacanthal, and Alkaloids.
Alkaloids are colorless, complex, bitter organic bases, and they are essential to maintaining life.
Dr. Ralph Heinicke, a respected biochemist formerly at the University of Hawaii, has dedicated himself to the study of one alkaloid in particular called xeronine. The body produces xeronine in order to activate enzymes and to regulate and give structure to proteins. According to Dr. Heinicke, without xeronine life simply would not exist. However, extracting xeronine from the human body has been impossible so far. Even though the noni fruit has only negligible amounts of xeronine, the juice does contain very large amounts of a precursor to this essential alkaloid called proxeronine.