In Polynesia, ripe noni fruit is contained, so that it decomposes and ferments. The amber juice that forms on top of the fermented fruit is consumed daily as a general preventative medicine.

But in contemporary Western civilizations, fresh noni fruit is hard to come by. You could try to buy fresh noni fruit directly from a manufacturer of noni fruit products, but it would be expensive, because there is not enough demand to encourage regular supply.

Fresh noni fruit smells very pungent, and not an aroma one normally associates with fruit. Noni juice itself also radiates this aroma, but not to the extent that fresh noni fruit does. The riper the noni fruit, the stronger the odor.

Consuming fresh noni fruit is the healthiest way to benefit from its properties. This is because it is completely unprocessed. All products made from noni fruit go through a process by which some of the nutrients are lost, decreasing their therapeutic value. Many of these nutrients are chemically volatile, evaporating rapidly in dehydration, juicing, pureeing, and other preparation processes.

The next best thing to fresh noni fruit could well be a preparation process called lyophilization or, simply, freeze-drying. In the process, the fresh noni fruit is frozen, and then the water is reduced just enough so that harmful microbes cannot survive. This process avoids the most destructive elements a natural food supplement can undergo, including heat, light, air, moisture, and time.