The Wolfberry is the name of a popular fruit that is grown around the world in a few specific locations and is often marketed under the name of the Goji berry, and touted as an extremely healthy and nutrient packed fruit that can help to treat and prevent a variety of diseases and conditions. Both the Lycium Chinense and the Lycium Barbarum are commonly called Wolfberry, but the Lycium Barbarum variety actually are Goij berries, even though marketers have called both the Goji for some time.
There are marked difference between the Lycium Barbarum and the Lycium Chinense, the most obvious of which is that Lycium Barbarum grows in a shrub form, while Chinense is a vine variety of the Wolfberry. However, there are also differences in the regions that they are grown. For instance, you do not find L. Chinense growing in Tibet very often but you do find a lot of Lycium Barbarum. Lycium Chinense, the vine form of the Wolfberry is often found in Australia, China and the Himalayas. However, you do find people growing both varieties in all parts of the world, even if they are not found there naturally.
History of Wolfberries
For thousands of years the Wolfberry has been used in China and other parts of the country because of the enormous health benefits that was experienced by those who took it in some form, and the effects it had on certain diseases and conditions. Use of the Wolfberry goes back at least 5000 years and some of the earliest Chinese medical texts talk about how beneficial Wolfberries are, with emphasis on treatment of conditions like problems with vision, kidney and liver diseases and strengthening the bones and muscles of the body. Also, the people of the region often attribute longevity and increased vitality with the Wolfberry.
The Wolfberry is from the Ningxia valley in China, and often the name Ningxia Wolfberry is used as a more formal titling rather than just Wolfberry. The valley is particularly well suited to the growth of the Wolfberry, because of the silt from the Himalayas that is deposited in the platoo. The weather that exists there, combined with the altitude of the valley create the perfect conditions for growing this product and has made the Wolfberry what it is today with constant adaptation of the environment, making it packed with all kinds of nutrients with the ingredients and polysaccharides that do so much good in the human body.
Where Are Wolfberries Grown
Many of the Wolfberries that make up the commercial products that are available today are grown in China especially the north central region called Ningxia Hui Autonomous, as well as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region which is in the west part of China. They are generally grown on plantations and used in local products or exported to other areas where they can be sold in nutritional supplements and other Wolfberry products in health food stores and other markets.
Every year, the harvest in China comes to about 72 million pounds of Wolfberries which make up almost half of the product that is available eon the market. There are a huge number of people behind the Wolfberry in China, from the marketing to the growing and everything in between, making it one of the top products grown in China with export totals reaching around $120 million. The Wolfberry is also grown in a few other areas in Asia like Mongolia, Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi and Hebei. Other varieties of Wolfberry are grown in Australia, the United Kingdom and the Himalayas.
Health Benefits of the Wolfberry
One of the main health benefits of the Wolfberry is that it slows down aging. This has been reported by many who have taken it in recent years, but has also been reported for thousands of years by those in China who take the fruit regularly. In fact, many people in the area live to be well over a hundred years old, and many consider that Wolfberry the main reason that this is the case. It works by the antioxidants in the Wolfberry fighting the free radicals that cause cell damage in combination with the production of the Human Growth Hormone, which can cause you to continue regenerating and growing, even if you are over the age of thirty, which is when most people stop.
Wolberry has also been linked to weight loss, because the polysaccharides that the Wolfberry has. These polysaccharides can help to convert the full amount of food that you take in into energy, rather than storing it into fat, which is normally what happens when you take in food that your body can’t convert into energy. The Wolfberry was used in a study with obese patients, in which they took the berry twice a day to see if there were any real results and those who used Wolfberry lost a significant amount of weight as opposed to those that didn’t.
Goji also has been linked to certain types of cancer. This is due to the antioxidants and the polysaccharides which can help to prevent the mutations of the genes which cause cancer. They also help to treat and kill tumorous cells by breaking them down in apoptosis. Of course, Wolfberries and the products containing Wolfberry are no substitute for cancer treatments like radiation therapy and cancer drugs, but Wolfberry has been said to increase the chances of recovering from cancer as much as two hundred percent when combined with conventional cancer treatments.
The Wolfberry is also thought to have a great effect on sexual desire and the human immune system. Elderly people may notice a drop in their libido and other aging symptoms, but the Wolfberry increase testosterone levels in the blood and raises the desire for sexual activity. Also, the Wolfberry has a significant impact on the immune system because the polysaccharides improve heart and liver functions and help to promote kidney health as well as lowering blood pressure, cholesterol levels and controlling diabetes in many patients.