Wolfberry Totally Explained

Everything about Wolfberry totally explained

ť Wolfberry is also another name for the western snowberry, Symphoricarpos occidentalis.
Wolfberry is the common name for the fruit of two very closely related species: Lycium barbarum and L. chinense, two species of boxthorn in the family Solanaceae (which also includes the potato, tomato, eggplant, deadly nightshade, chili pepper, and tobacco). Although its original habitat is obscure (probably southeastern Europe to southwest Asia), wolfberry species currently grow in many world regions. Only in China, however, is there significant commercial cultivation.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture Germplasm Resources Information Network, it's also known as Chinese wolfberry, goji berry, barbary matrimony vine, bocksdorn, Duke of Argyll's tea tree, or matrimony vine. Unrelated to the plant's geographic origin, the names Tibetan goji and Himalayan goji are in common use in the health food market for products from this plant.

Significance

Renowned in Asia as a highly nutritious food, wolfberries have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for about 1,900 years (Gross et al., 2006). Their undocumented legend, however, is considerably older, as wolfberries are often linked in Chinese lore to Shen Nung (Shennong), China's legendary First Emperor, mythical father of agriculture, and herbalist who lived circa 2,800 BC.
Since the early 21st century in the United States and other such developed countries, there has been rapidly growing recognition of wolfberries for their nutrient richness and antioxidant qualities, leading to a profusion of consumer products. Such rapid commercial development extends from wolfberry having a high ranking among superfruits expected to be part of a multi-billion dollar market by 2011.

Description

Wolfberry species are deciduous woody perennial plants, growing 1-3 m high. L. chinense is grown in the south of China and tends to be somewhat shorter, while L. barbarum is grown in the north, primarily in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and tends to be somewhat taller.
   The botanical division named to the upper right, Magnoliophyta, identifies plants that flower and the class Magnoliopsida represents flowering plants (Dicotyledons) with two embryonic seed leaves called cotyledons appearing at germination.
   The order Solanales names a perennial plant with five-petaled flowers that are more or less united into a ring at the base; well-known members of the order include morning glory, bindweed, and sweet potato as well as the plants of the Solanaceae, mentioned below.
   Lastly, Solanaceae is the nightshade family that includes hundreds of plant foods like potato, tomato, eggplant, wolfberry, peppers (paprika), crop commodities (tobacco), and flowers (petunia). Although the Solanales includes many plant foods, some members are poisonous (for example belladonna).

Leaves and flower

Wolfberry leaves form on the shoot either in an alternating arrangement or in bundles of up to three, each having a shape that's either lanceolate (shaped like a spearhead longer than it's wide) or ovate (egg-like). Leaf dimensions are 7 cm long by 3.5 cm wide with blunted or round tips.
One to three flowers (picture) occur on stems 1-2 cm in length. The calyx (eventually ruptured by the growing berry) is comprised of bell-shaped or tubular sepals forming short, triangular lobes. The corolla are lavender or light purple, 9-14 cm long with five or six lobes shorter than the tube. The stamens are structured with anthers that open lengthwise, shorter in length than the (picture).
In the northern hemisphere, flowering occurs from June through September and berry maturation from August to October, depending on latitude, altitude, and climate.

Fruit

These species produce a bright orange-red, ellipsoid berry 1-2 cm long^{(External Link) photo}. The number of seeds in each berry varies widely based on cultivar and fruit size, containing anywhere between 10-60 tiny yellow seeds that are compressed with a curved embryo. The berries ripen from July to October in the Northern hemisphere.

Etymology

"Wolfberry" is the most commonly used English name, while gǒuqǐ is the Chinese name for the berry producing plant. In Chinese, the berries themselves are called gǒuqǐzi (枸杞), with zi meaning "seed" or specifically "berry". Other common names are "the Duke of Argyll's Tea Tree" Interpreters of botanical nomenclature believe barbarum, the species name, indicates that the wolfberry was of foreign origin, perhaps originating outside Anatolia or China, or was deemed a plant not native to the region where it was first discovered.
Together, these names are used as specific botanical identifiers in binomial nomenclature for which barbarum is the specific epithet. The end abbreviation, L., refers to Linnaeus, who described the species in 1753 in Species Plantarum. L. chinense was first described by the Scottish botanist Philip Miller in the eighth edition of his The Gardener's Dictionary, published in 1768.
In Japan the plant is known as kuko and the fruits are called kuko no mi or kuko no kajitsu ; in Korea the berries are known as gugija (hangul: ; hanja: 枸杞子)(External Link

); in Vietnam the fruit is called "kỷ tử" (杞子), "cẩu kỷ" (枸杞), "cẩu kỷ tử"(枸杞子) but the plant and its leaves are known more popularly as "củ khởi"; and in Thailand the plant is called găo gèe (เก๋ากี่). In Tibetan the plant is called dre-tsher-ma, with dre meaning "ghost" and tsher-ma meaning "thorn"; and the name of the fruit is dre-tsher-mai-dre-bu, with dre-bu meaning "fruit".

Cultivation

China

The majority of commercially produced wolfberries come from the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of north-central China and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China, where they're grown on plantations. In Zhongning County, Ningxia, wolfberry plantations typically range between 100 and 1000 acres (or 500-6000 mu) in area.
Cultivated along the fertile aggradational floodplains of the Yellow River for more than 600 years, Ningxia wolfberries have earned a reputation throughout Asia for premium quality sometimes described commercially as "red diamonds".(External Link

) Government releases of annual wolfberry production, premium fruit grades, and export are based on yields from Ningxia, the region recognized with:

The largest annual harvest in China, accounting for 42% (13 million kg, 2001) of the nation's total yield of wolfberries, estimated at approximately 33 million kg (72 million lb) in 2001.

Formation of an industrial association of growers, processors, marketers, and scholars of wolfberry cultivation to promote the berry's commercial and export potential.

Ongoing horticultural research conducted on the wolfberry plant at the Ningxia Research Institute, Yinchuan (see References: Gross et al., 2006, chapter 9).

The nation's only source of therapeutic grade ("superior-grade") wolfberries used by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.(External Link

) In addition, commercial volumes of wolfberries grow in the Chinese regions of Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei. The oblong, red berries are very tender and must be picked carefully or shaken from the vine into trays to avoid spoiling. The fruits are preserved by slowly drying them in the shade on air exchange tables or by mechanical dehydration employing a progressively increasing series of heat exposure over 48 hours.
Wolfberries are celebrated each August in Ningxia with an annual festival coinciding with the berry harvest (it was first held in Ningxia's capital, Yinchuan, but is now held in Zhongning County, an important center of wolfberry cultivation for the region).(External Link

) China, the main supplier of wolfberry products in the world, had total exports generating US$120 million in 2004. This production derived from 82,000 hectares farmed nationwide, yielding 95,000 tons of wolfberries.(External Link

)

Pesticide and fungicide use

Organochlorine pesticides are conventionally used in commercial wolfberry cultivation to mitigate destruction of the delicate berries by insects. Since the early 21st century, high levels of pyrethroid insecticide residues (including fenvalerate and cypermethrin) and fungicide residues (such as triadimenol), have been detected by the United States Food and Drug Administration in some imported wolfberries and wolfberry products of Chinese origin, leading to the seizure of these products.(External Link

) Due to the demand for organic products in the West, some Chinese growers are beginning to experiment with integrated pest management and to explore the possibility of obtaining organic certification, something that hasn't yet been publicly disclosed for Chinese wolfberry farms and products.
Some Western resellers may state that their wolfberries are organically grown when in fact they're not. The Green Certificate claimed by some wolfberry marketers to be the equivalent of the United States Department of Agriculture's "USDA Organic" seal(External Link

) is in actuality simply an agricultural training program for China's rural poor.(External Link

) China's Green Food Standard,(External Link

) administered by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture's China Green Food Development Center, does permit some amount of pesticide and herbicide use.(External Link

)(External Link

) Despite some claims that wolfberries sold in Europe, the United States, and Canada meet organic standards, there's no public evidence for standardized organic certification of wolfberries from the Asian regions where they're commercially grown. Often, these berries are marketed as Tibetan or Himalayan Goji Berries that have been "wild crafted" or "wild harvested". On the contrary, however, Tibet's agriculture conventionally uses fertilizers and pesticides, and neither wolfberries ("goji") of Tibetan or Himalayan origin sold outside Tibet nor organic certification of such berries have been proved(External Link

Tibetan goji berry

Since the early 21st century, the names "Himalayan Goji berry" and "Tibetan Goji berry" have become common in the global health food market, applied to berries claimed to have been grown or collected in the Himalaya region (External Link

) (or sometimes "the Tibetan and Mongolian Himalayas"(External Link

), a because the Himalayas don't extend into Mongolia, which lies approximately 1500 km (1000 miles) to the northeast)(External Link

). Although none of the companies marketing such berries specifies an exact location in the Himalayas or Tibet where their berries are supposed to be grown, Earl Mindell's website states that his "Himalayan" Goji products don't actually come from the Himalayas, but instead from Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and the Tian Shan Mountains of western Xinjiang, China(External Link

).
Although Lycium species do grow in some regions of Tibet, commercial export production of wolfberries in the Tibetan Himayalas must be a myth fabricated for a marketing advantage, as this mountain range bordering the Tibetan Plateau is a region inhospitable to commercial cultivation of plant foods of any kind. In the Himalayan foothills, bleak desolation is unrelieved by any vegetation beyond sparse, low bushes(External Link

), whereas eastern valleys and plains of the Tibetan Plateau at lower altitude support growth of wild Lycium chinense(External Link

).
The Tibetan Plateau, comprising most of Tibet north and east of the Himalayas, lies at more than 3000 m (10,000 ft) in altitude, with poor soil and arid climate conditions unfavorable for fruit crops. Defined by the geography of Tibet, particularly in the western Himalayas, cold nighttime temperatures averaging -4°C year round (External Link

) with six months of continual frost(External Link

) would inhibit plant bud development and prevent fruit formation. Existing in Tibet are minimal subsistence agriculture and impoverished crop management and transportation facilities unsupportive of commercial berry production. Although limited fertile regions suitable for food crops exist in the valleys of Lhasa, Shigatse, Gyantse, and the Brahmaputra River, there are no objective economic, scientific, or government reports on the commercial production of Lycium berry species from these Tibetan regions(External Link

Importance of cultivar

Described in ancient Chinese texts, gǒuqǐ (wolfberry, named Lycium barbarum L. in 1753) has existed in China over recorded history and has likely been used to make hybrid plants dozens of times across Asia, as attested by some 90 species of boxthorn, wolfberry's genus.
Although several wolfberry marketers state that their "Tibetan goji" is a specific species, given variously as Lycium eleganus, Lycium eleganus barbarum, or Lycium eleagnus, no such species exist. Elaeagnus (Silverberry or Oleaster) is a genus of about 50-70 species of flowering plants in the Elaeagnaceae family. The vast majority of Elaeagnus species are native to temperate and subtropical regions of Asia, including Elaeagnus umbellata, which grows near the Himalayas and bears an orange-red berry possibly confused with Lycium barbarum.
Some Internet authors claim Lycium eleagnus barbarum (another nonexistent species) is the original Lycium barbarum or an improved cultivar of it.(External Link

) However, Lycium and Elaeagnus are sufficiently disparate genera that successful cross-breeding is unlikely. Further, there's no evidence in the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants of a Lycium species of Elaeagnus or vice versa.(External Link

) (External Link

)

United Kingdom

Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll (1682–1761) delighted in growing exotic trees and shrubs in his garden at Whitton in Middlesex, England (he was nicknamed the "Treemonger" by Horace Walpole) and introduced the plant into the United Kingdom in the 1730s where it's known as Duke of Argyll's Tea Tree. It was and still is used for hedging, especially in coastal districts. Its red berries are attractive to a wide variety of British birds.
The plant continues to grow wild in UK hedgerows. On 15 January 2003, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (of the United Kingdom Government) launched a project to improve the regulations protecting traditional countryside hedgerows, and specifically mentioned Duke of Argyll's Tea Tree as one of the species to be found growing in hedges located in Suffolk Sandlings, Hadley, Bawdsey, near Ipswich, and Walberswick.
The wolfberry has been naturalized as an ornamental and edible plant in the UK for nearly 300 years. On June 18, 2007, the FSA (UK Food Standards Agency) stated that there was a significant history of the fruit being consumed in Europe before 1997, and has removed it from the Novel Foods list (External Link

). It is now legal to sell the goji berry in the UK as a food as reported by the British Food Standards Agency (External Link

).(also see discussion below, Marketing claims under scrutiny in Europe).

Uses

Wolfberries are almost never found in their fresh form outside of their production regions, and are usually sold in open boxes and small packages in dried form. The amount of desiccation varies in wolfberries: some are soft and somewhat tacky in the manner of raisins, while others may be very hard. Wolfberries with a vibrant orange-red color may have been treated with sulfites. Wolfberries are usually used directly, and don't need to be rehydrated prior to use.

Medicinal

Wolfberries have long played important roles in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) where they're believed to enhance immune system function, improve eyesight, protect the liver, boost sperm production and improve circulation, among other effects.
In TCM terms, wolfberries are sweet in taste and neutral in nature. They act on the liver, lungs, and kidneys and enrich yin. They can be eaten raw, consumed as juice or wine, brewed into an herbal tea ^{photo 1}^{photo 2} or prepared as a tincture. The berries are also used in traditional Korean medicine, traditional Japanese medicine and traditional Tibetan medicine.
Wolfberry leaves may be used to make tea(External Link

) and Lycium root bark (called dìgǔpí; in Chinese)^photo for TCM treatment of inflammatory and some types of skin diseases. A glucopyranoside and phenolic amides isolated from wolfberry root bark have inhibitory activity in vitro against human pathogenic bacteria and fungi (External Link

)(External Link

).
   An early mention of wolfberry occurs in the 7th century Tang Dynasty treatise Yaoxing Lun. It is also discussed in the 16th century Ming Dynasty Compendium of Materia Medica of Li Shizhen.
   From marketing literature for wolfberry products including several "goji juices", a reputation exists for wolfberry polysaccharides having extensive biological effects and health benefits, although none of these has been proved by peer-reviewed research. Wolfberry polysaccharides show antioxidant activity in vitro and might also have biological activities in vivo currently under research (20 publications on this topic since 1991; PubMed, February 2007). As a source of dietary fiber, however, polysaccharides would yield products from bacterial fermentation in the colon, such as several short-chain fatty acids, for example, butyric acid, which may provide health benefits. Although the macromolecular structure of wolfberry polysaccharides hasn't been elucidated, preliminary structural studies appear to indicate that they exist in the form of complex glycoconjugates .
   Wolfberry fruits also contain zeaxanthin, an important dietary carotenoid selectively absorbed into the retinal macula lutea where it's thought to provide antioxidant and protective light-filtering roles. A human supplementation trial showed that daily intake of wolfberries increased plasma levels of zeaxanthin.
   Several published studies, mostly from China, have also reported possible medicinal benefits of Lycium barbarum, especially due to its antioxidant properties, including potential benefits against cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, vision-related diseases (such as age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma), having neuroprotective properties or as an anticancer and immunomodulatory agent.
   However, in the west, none of this research has been scientifically verified, confirmed in clinical studies, or accepted by regulatory authorities.

Culinary

As a food, dried wolfberries are traditionally cooked before consumption. Dried wolfberries are often added to rice congee,^photo as well as used in Chinese tonic soups, in combination with chicken or pork, vegetables, and other herbs such as wild yam, Astragalus membranaceus, Codonopsis pilosula, and licorice root.^{photo 1}^{photo 2} The berries are also boiled as an herbal tea, often along with chrysanthemum flowers^photo and/or red jujubes, and packaged teas are also available.^photo Various wines containing wolfberries (called gǒuqǐ jiǔ; 枸杞酒) are also produced, including some that are a blend of grape wine and wolfberries.^photo At least one Chinese company also produces wolfberry beer, and New Belgium Brewery makes an ale with wolfberries used as flavoring.^photo Since the early 21st century, an instant coffee product containing wolfberry extract has been produced in China.^{photo 1}^{photo 2}^{photo 3} Young wolfberry shoots and leaves are also grown commercially as a leaf vegetable.^photo^recipe In the West, dried wolfberries are also eaten hand-to-mouth as a snack, in the manner of raisins or other dried fruit. Their taste has an accent of tomato and is similar to that of dates, dried cranberries or raisins, though drier, more tart, less sweet and with an herbal scent. Dried wolfberries are also used frequently in raw food diets.

Nutrient content

Macronutrients

Wolfberry contains significant percentages of a day's macronutrient needs – carbohydrates, protein, fat and dietary fiber. 68% of the mass of dried wolfberries exists as carbohydrate, 12% as protein, and 10% each as fiber and fat, giving a total caloric value in a 100 gram serving of 370 (kilo)calories.

Micronutrients and phytochemicals

Wolfberries contain many nutrients and phytochemicals including

11 essential and 22 trace dietary minerals

18 amino acids

6 essential vitamins

8 polysaccharides and 6 monosaccharides

5 unsaturated fatty acids, including the essential fatty acids, linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid

beta-sitosterol and other phytosterols

5 carotenoids, including beta-carotene and zeaxanthin (below), lutein, lycopene and cryptoxanthin, a xanthophyll

numerous phenolic pigments (phenols) associated with antioxidant properties Select examples given below are for 100 grams of dried berries. Other nutrient data are presented in two reference texts Superfruit is meant to imply nutrient richness with medical research results indicating potential health benefits, combined with uncommon but appealing taste, pigmentation, and antioxidant strength. During 2006-7, the market for wolfberries included 89 new product introductions in eight retail segments (not including the larger commercial area of network marketing) having an estimated sales total of $9 million, growing rapidly. An executive of one network marketing company was quoted as saying the juice market alone for wolfberries would be valued at more than $1 billion by 2013.
Other wolfberry consumer applications are as dried berries (picture above), berry pieces in granola bars, and skin soap made from seed oils.
Commercial suppliers have processed wolfberry as an additive for manufacturing, such as juice concentrate, whole fruit purée, powders from juice or juice concentrate made from spray drying, pulp powders, whole or ground seeds, seed oils (as done for grape seed oil), and essential oils derived from seeds.

Marketing claims under scrutiny in Europe

In February 2007, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) of Great Britain, an advisor for food safety to the European Food Safety Authority of the European Union (EU), published an inquiry to retailers and health food stores requesting evidence of significant use of wolfberries in Europe before 1997. This period would document a safety history and evaluate how "novel" the berries are in the EU, affecting their authorization status for sale.
Proponents hoped this review would provide important safeguards for consumers by checking whether new foods are suitable for the whole population, including people with food allergies. Opponents on the other hand feared it would limit consumer choice and protect monopolistic interests rather than the public. Food safety in the EU relies importantly on a scientific basis for label information on foods like wolfberries that may be claimed to furnish health benefits.
In June 2007, the FSA announced its decision that wolfberries indeed had a history of use in Great Britain before 1997. Accordingly, wolfberries don't require registration as a novel food.

Marketing claims under scrutiny in Canada and the United States

In January 2007, marketing statements for a goji juice product were subject of an investigative report by CBC Television's consumer advocacy program Marketplace (TV series)(External Link

).
In a review of medical literature pertaining to each proposed claim of health benefits from Himalayan Goji Juice(External Link

) (Mindell and Handel, 2003), Gross et al. (2006, book chapter 6; see Article Bibliography) summarized that 22 of 23 claims had no evidence for providing a health benefit beyond that inferred from preliminary in vitro or laboratory animal research. For cancer specifically, four studies were reviewed in Chapter 4 of their book, but Gross et al. (2006) concluded the research was too preliminary to allow any conclusion about an anti-cancer effect of consuming wolfberries or wolfberry juice.
By one specific example in the CBC interview, Earl Mindell claimed the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York had completed clinical studies showing that use of wolfberry juice would prevent 75% of human breast cancer cases, a statement false in three ways:

no such project has been undertaken at Memorial Sloan-Kettering(External Link

)

according to the National Cancer Institute of the US National Institutes of Health, no natural or pharmaceutical agent has been shown in clinical trials to fully prevent breast cancer, only to reduce its risk (External Link

); specifically, there are no completed or ongoing clinical trials in the United States testing the effects of wolfberries or juice on breast cancer outcomes (External Link

) or any other disease(External Link

) and

beyond preliminary laboratory studies(External Link

) (External Link

)(External Link

) and one Chinese clinical trial described only in an abstract(External Link

), there's no scientific evidence for wolfberry phytochemicals or wolfberry juice having cancer-preventive properties (Gross, et al., 2006, chapters 4, 6). Significant in nutrient and phytochemical composition, wolfberries are being developed(External Link

)(External Link

) as new products in the functional food industry under FDA regulatory review since December, 2006 for label and marketing claims(External Link

) as being conducted in 2007 by the European Union (above).
During 2006, the FDA placed two goji juice distributors on notice with warning letters about marketing claims. These statements were in violation of the United States Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act [21USC/321 (g)(1)](External Link

) because they "establish the product as a drug intended for use in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease" when wolfberries or juice have had no such scientific evaluation. Additionally stated by the FDA, the goji juice was "not generally recognized as safe and effective for the referenced conditions" and therefore must be treated as a "new drug" under Section 21(p) of the Act. New drugs may not be legally marketed in the United States without prior approval of the FDA, as stated in the letters below:

Dynamic Health Laboratories Inc. of Brooklyn, New York, May 8, 2006(External Link

)

Healthsuperstore.com of Elk Grove, California, August 7, 2006(External Link

)Further Information

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