Goji, goji berry, or wolfberry, is the fruit of either Lycium barbarum or Lycium chinense, two closely related species of boxthorn in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Both species are native to Asia.
Video Goji
Etymology and naming
The common English name, "wolfberry", has unknown origin. It may have arisen from the mistaken assumption that a previous Latin name, lycii fructus, was derived from Greek ????? (lycos) meaning "wolf", when in fact it derived from ?????? (lykion), referring to the ancient region of Lycia (?????) in Anatolia.
In the English-speaking world, the name "goji berry" has been used since around 2000. The word "goji" is an approximation of the pronunciation of g?u q? (pinyin for ??), the name for the berry producing plant L. chinense in several Chinese dialects, including Hokkien and Shanghainese. This name possibly derives from the same roots as the Persian language term gojeh (????), which means "plum" or "berry".
In technical botanical nomenclature, L. barbarum is called matrimony vine while L. chinese is Chinese desert-thorn.
Maps Goji
Uses
Traditional Asian cuisine
In traditional Asian cuisine, dried wolfberries are traditionally cooked before consumption, such as for rice congee and almond jelly, as well as tonic soups in combination with chicken or pork, vegetables, and other herbs. Young wolfberry shoots and leaves are also harvested commercially as a leaf vegetable.
Health food
Since the early 21st century, the dried fruit has been marketed in the Western world as a health food, amidst scientifically unsupported claims regarding such benefits. In the wake of those claims, dried and fresh goji berries were included in many snack foods and food supplements, such as granola bars, yogurt, tea blends, fruit juices and juice concentrates, whole fruit purées, and dried pulp flour. There have been also commercial products of whole and ground wolfberry seeds, and seed oil.
Marketing controversies
Among the extreme claims used to market the product, often referred to as a "superfruit", is the unsupported story that a Chinese man named Li Qing Yuen, who was said to have consumed wolfberries daily, lived to the age of 256 years (1677-1933). This claim apparently originated in a 2003 booklet by Earl Mindell, who claimed also that goji had anti-cancer properties. The booklet contained false and unverified claims. Such exaggerated claims about the health benefits of goji berry and derived products triggered strong reactions, including from government regulatory agencies. In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) placed two goji juice distributors on notice with warning letters about unproven therapeutic benefits. These statements were in violation of the United States Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act [21 USC/321 (g)(1)] 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.
In January 2007, marketing statements for a goji juice product were the subject of an investigative report by consumer advocacy program Marketplace produced by the Canadian television network, CBC. In the interview, Earl Mindell (then working for direct-marketing company FreeLife International, Inc.) falsely 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.
On May 29, 2009, a class action lawsuit was filed against FreeLife in the United States District Court of Arizona. This lawsuit alleged false claims, misrepresentations, false and deceptive advertising and other issues regarding FreeLife's Himalayan Goji Juice, GoChi, and TaiSlim products. This lawsuit sought remedies for consumers who had purchased the products over years. A settlement agreement was reached on April 28, 2010, where FreeLife took steps to ensure that its goji products were not marketed as "unheated" or "raw", and made a contribution to an educational organization.
As with many other novel "health" foods and supplements, the lack of clinical evidence and poor quality control in the manufacture of consumer products prevent goji from being clinically recommended or applied. In traditional medicine, the whole fruit or its extracts are said to have numerous effects, which has spurred some basic research to investigate possible medicinal uses of substances contained in the fruit. However, such uses were still scientifically unconfirmed as of 2018.
Safety
Interaction with other drugs
In vitro testing suggests that unidentified wolfberry phytochemicals in goji tea may inhibit metabolism of other medications, such as those processed by the cytochrome P450 liver enzymes. Such drugs include warfarin, or drugs for diabetes or hypertension.
Pesticide and fungicide residues
Organochlorine pesticides are conventionally used in commercial wolfberry cultivation to mitigate infestation by insects. China's Green Food Standard, administered by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture's China Green Food Development Center, does permit some amount of pesticide and herbicide use. Agriculture in the Tibetan plateau (where many "Himalayan" or "Tibetan"-branded berries supposedly originate) conventionally uses fertilizers and pesticides, making organic claims for berries originating here dubious.
Since the early 21st century, high levels of insecticide residues (including fenvalerate, cypermethrin, and acetamiprid) and fungicide residues (such as triadimenol and isoprothiolane), 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.
Cultivation and commercialization
Wolfberries are most often sold in dried form.
When ripe, the oblong, red berries are tender and must be picked carefully or shaken from the vine into trays to avoid spoiling. The fruits are preserved by drying them in full sun on open trays or by mechanical dehydration employing a progressively increasing series of heat exposure over 48 hours.
China
China is the main supplier of wolfberry products in the world, with total exports generating US$120 million in 2004. This production derived from 82,000 hectares farmed nationwide, yielding 95,000 tons of wolfberries.
The majority of commercially produced wolfberry (50,000 tons in 2013, accounting for 45% of China's total yield) comes from L. barbarum plantations in the Ningxia and Xinjiang in Northwestern China, totaling 200,000 acres as of 2005.. The cutivation is centered in Zhongning County, Ningxia, where wolfberry plantations typically range between 40 and 400 hectares (100-1000 acres or 500-6000 mu) in area.
Ningxia goji has been cultivated along the fertile floodplains of the Yellow River for more than 700 years. They are sometimes described commercially as "red diamonds". The region has developed an industrial association of growers, processors, marketers, and scholars of wolfberry cultivation to promote the berry's commercial and export potential. Ningxia goji is the variety used by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.
Wolfberries are celebrated each August in Ningxia with an annual festival coinciding with the berry harvest. Originally held in Ningxia's capital, Yinchuan, the festival has been based since 2000 in Zhongning County.
Besides Ningxia, commercial volumes of wolfberries grow in the Chinese regions of Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hebei.
United Kingdom
Lycium barbarum had been introduced in the United Kingdom in the 1730s by The Duke of Argyll, but the plant was mostly used for hedges and decorative gardening.
The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) had initially placed goji berry in the Novel Foods list. That classification would have required authorisation from the European Council and Parliament for marketing.. However, on June 18, 2007, the FSA concluded that there was a significant history of consumption of the fruit before 1997, indicating its safety, and thus removed it from the list. The wolfberry now can be sold in the UK as any other food.. It upheld however concerns over marketing claims about its potential health benefits.
Canada and United States
In the first decade of the 21st century, farmers in Canada and the United States began cultivating goji on a commercial scale to meet potential markets for fresh berries, juice, and processed products.
See also
References
External links
- Flora of China citation for L. barbarum
- Flora of China citation for L. chinense
- United States Department of Agriculture
- Plants For A Future database
- Montana plant life.org
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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