When ripe, the tropical fruit noni turns the kind of yellow-green most people associate with nasal congestion -- and gives off an odor pungent enough to clear that congestion away. Accordingly, noni's profile has long been low compared with that of more popular Pacific Rim fruits.
Noni is so low-profile, in fact, that many people have never heard of it. But that is about to change.
In the past decade, the humble noni -- more specifically its juice -- has rapidly become the top product of the worldwide Complementary and Alternative Medicine movement. In 1996, the leading purveyor of noni juice, a Utah-based firm called Morinda International, listed profits of $40 million. By 2001, those per-annum profits had risen to $550 million.