Ralf`s book of superfoods and nutrition - part 7

Goji Berries

Goji berries also called wolf berries, are very healthy. They contain many vital nutrients, such as over 30 minerals and trace elements, e.g. iron, copper, nickel, chromium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium. The berry also contains 19 amino acids.
The goji berry also contains many vitamins, including vitamin C, vitamin A and vitamin B1 and B2 and vitamin E.
It is currently one of the most nutritious fruits in the world.
The common wolf berry (lycium barbarum, synonym: l. halimifolium) is a night shadow plant (solanaceae) from the genus bocksdorne (Lycium). The plant is a neophyte, and is also called the common devil twelfth, devil twelfth, witches twirn, or chinese wolfberry. In china it is called níngxià gǒuqǐ, in the english-speaking region goji or wolf berry. It is used as an ornamental plant and is part of chinese cuisine and traditional chinese medicine. The EPPO code is LYUHA.
The common bocks dorn is a summer-green shrub, which can be two to four meters high. Its rod-shaped branches, mostly spines, hang arch-like, and have elongated, lanceolate long, full-margined, gray-green leaves, 2 to 3 cm wide, 3 to 10 cm long, and sitting singly or objectively on the branch. The flowering period of the common bocks dorn is from june to august and partly until september.
Goji on a shrub:

and dried:

The inflorescence contains one or several five-fold, hermaphroditic flowers, each sitting on a 1 to 2 cm long stem. The petal is 4 to 5 mm in diameter, bell-shaped and two-lobed. The flower crown is violet and funnel-shaped, with 5 to 6 mm long spreading petals, which are almost glabrous on the edge. The calyx has a length of 8 to 10 millimeters, and the stamens and pencils are easily visible. The pollination is carried out by insects (bees) or self-pollination. The bright red or orange-yellow, elongated to egg-shaped, 0.4 to 2 mm wide and 5 to 12 mm long fruits ripen from august to october and spread their seeds with the animals from which they are eaten. Each individual fruit contains 4 to 20 brown-yellow round seeds with a diameter of about 2 mm. The plant is considered very hardy and can withstand frosts down to -25 ° C. At the site, bocks dorn spreads through roots (rhizomes) and is therefore limited by rhizomes. As a further possibility of spreading are offshoots of drooping branches and the sowing of seeds.
A cultivated form of the berry is also called wolfberry in the USA, but its quality is not comparable with the Asian. Do not confuse the Goji berry or the cultivated wolfberry with the native bocks dorn, or the beech twig, the devil yarn or the felting herb, because this berry is poisonous, similar to the dulcetry and can be a health problem for children above a certain amount (Lycium barbarum is one of the toxic night shadow plants).
The Goji berries from the Asian tribe, on the other hand, belong to the Lycium species group (lat. Lycium eleganteus barbarum), however, are non-toxic and rich in antioxidants such as vitamin C (500 times as much vitamin C as oranges weight!). They contain more vitamin B than any other fruit.
Goji as a flower:

They are currently the only known fruits in the world, in which all these high-ranking active ingredients were found in a balanced complex!
The soil quality and the climatic conditions of the harvest and growth areas are decisive for the quality, and with heights of up to 5500 m in the Himalayan region in a very high and unique position - hence the sun closest - and thus rich in biophotons (biophotons = stored, highly concentrated light energy).

To make the Goji berry its full effect, it is an advantage if the shrub grows in a particularly nutrient-rich soil. The original native territory of small bright red berries is the province of Ningxia in China on the edge of Mongolia.

The floodplain area of the Yellow River, where the original Ningxia Goji berries come from, is fed with water from the Himalayas. When the melt begins in the summer and the water flows down from the high mountains of the Himalayas, it carries a large quantity of minerals and organic substances. You can imagine what this incredibly fertile water does for the soil in Ningxia. There is probably no other place on this planet, and for this reason the goji berries are of the highest quality. Goji berries from Ningxia have by far the highest ingredient density.

Ingredients: Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C and E, carotenoids (e.g. zeaxanthin, cryptoxanthine, polysaccharides, proteoglycans LBP1, LBP2, LBP3, LBP4), 19 amino acids (e.g. isoleucine, methionine) minerals, 21 trace elements (e.g. zinc, calcium , germanium, selenium, iron) and other nutrient-physiologically valuable secondary crops such as flavonoids and terpenes.
Residual moisture (water) below 4% (similar to tea), as well as: beta-sitosterol (lowers cholesterol), essential fatty acids, cyperones (have a positive effect on heart and blood vessels), sesquiterpene (antibacterial), betaine (improve memory capacity and increase muscle growth).

Traditionally, the Chinese take dried bocks dorn berries against high blood pressure and blood glucose, in eye problems, to support the immune system and to prevent and treat cancer. 6 to 15 grams of the dried berries are indicated as single doses as decoction, in wine or as tincture.

Goji berries reach the right maturity level in late summer (august - september), then they are handpicked and then placed on mats for drying. With this type of air drying between 20-30 degrees Celsius all important nutrients remain, so that it is almost raw food.

The most delicious goji berries come from the sun-rich province of Ningxia, where the Lycium Barbarum L. can grow naturally and is hardly backed up. After harvesting, it is optimal if the berry fruits are directly processed further, e.g. dried or pressed. The wolf berries must not be sulfurized or treated in any other way.
According to the law, this should even be indicated on the outer pack, but this is not the case in 8 out of 10 cases. Even the manufacturers of top products forget to publish these important data.
The goji berries should come from a current crop.You want to buy fresh berries I assume. Even when the berries are dried, the best sweet to slightly sour taste comes best with fresh goji's. However, this applies to all forms of processing of goji berries.
When it comes to the question of preparation, it does not matter if the goji berries are dried, prepared as capsules or juice. As long as the goji berries have been carefully treated. If the fruits are dried too quickly, they lose a large portion of their softening effects which we really want to use for our purposes. In the case of juices, supplements or even the much worse quality fruits of the Lycium chinense Miller are often used. Goji berry juices taste great, but should be examined more thoroughly than other forms of wolf berries. When purchasing goji berry juices, please pay close attention to the manufacturer's instructions and ask for specific information.
The berries may be frozen or stored in a dried state.
Scientific examinations of the ingredients in laboratory studies gave first indications of medical effectiveness:
• Extracts from common bocks dorn protect against destruction of the optic nerve when glaucoma is present.
• Polysaccharides from the plant have an immunomodulating effect.
• Well-founded laboratory studies and clinical studies according to standard conditions for the efficacy against cancer do not yet exist.
• Aqueous bocks dorn extracts have strong antioxidant properties.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Earl Mindell, one of the world's best-known nutritionists, has recently expressed this message: "The Goji berry contains by far the greatest potential of health-promoting vital substances that I have encountered in my decades-long research. Its positive effect on the organism is incomparable and is not achieved by any other known plant. "

Researchers also tested the effect of the chinese wolf berry on the human brain. What came out of it was surprising, as it turned out that goji fruits gave a kind of protection against amyloid peptides. These peptides are primarily responsible for the development of Alzheimer's disease.
Poisoning cases are not known in humans. Therefore bocks dorn is not classified as toxic. The toxicity described by Roth is probably based on an article of 1890, which, however, was already rejected in 1891. If, then, it is only small amounts of hyoscyamine, but they are not toxic. Current pharmacological examinations disprove these statements.
By eating only a few berries a day, the number of white blood cells increases significantly and also makes them more active. That means intruders in our bodies, like viruses, have no chance.