| Chinese wolfberry | |
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| Lycium chinense fruits | |
Scientific classification 
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| Missing taxonomy template (fix): | Lycium |
| Species: | Template:Taxonomy/LyciumL. chinense
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| Binomial name | |
| Template:Taxonomy/LyciumLycium chinense | |
| Synonyms[1][2] | |
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It is known as the Chinese Boxthorn, Chinese Matrimony-Vine, Chinese Teaplant, Chinese Wolfberry, also called Wolfberry,[3] and Chinese desert-thorn, (Lycium chinense) is one of two species of boxthorn shrub in the family Solanaceae. Along with Lycium barbarum, it produces the goji berry ("wolfberry"). Two varieties are recognized,[4] L. chinense var. chinense and L. chinense var. potaninii.[5]
China
Lycium barbarum has been cultivated in China, along the fertile aggradational floodplains of the Yellow River, for more than 600 years. It is still extensively cultivated in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of north-central China, centered in Zhongning County, totaling 200,000 acres as of 2005,[6] The region produced 13,000 tons of fruit in 2001, accounting for 42% of the nation's total production of goji berries. The plant is also cultivated in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China,
The berries of L. barbarum are the only therapeutic grade ("superior-grade") kinds of wolfberries used by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.[7]
As Ningxia's borders merge with three deserts, L. barbarum is also planted to control erosion and reclaim irrigable soils from desertification.[8]
Description
Wolfberry species are deciduous woody shrubs, growing 1–3 metres (3 ft 3 in–9 ft 10 in) high, somewhat shorter than L. barbarum. The stems are highly branched. Branches are pale gray, slender, curved or pendulous, with thorns 0.5–2 centimetres (0.20–0.79 in) long.[4]
Leaves
Lycium chinense leaves form on the shoot either solitary in an alternating arrangement or in bundles of 2 to 4. Their shape may be ovate, rhombic, lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, usually 1.5–5 centimetres (0.59–1.97 in) long and 0.5–2.5 centimetres (0.20–0.98 in) wide (but up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) long and 4 centimetres (1.6 in) wide in cultivated plants).[4]
Flowers
The flowers grow in groups of one to three in the leaf axils, with pedicels 1–2 centimetres (0.39–0.79 in) long.[4] The bell-shaped or tubular calyx (eventually ruptured by the growing berry) splits halfway into short, triangular, densely ciliate lobes. The corollae is a tube that splits into lavender or light purple petals, 9–14 mm (0.35–0.55 in) wide with five or six lobes longer than the tube, with short hairs at the edge. The stamens are structured with filaments longer than the anthers, slightly shorter or longer than the corolla, with a villous ring slightly above the base and the adjacent corolla tube.[4] The anthers are longitudinally dehiscent.
Fruit and seeds
Lycium chinense produces a bright orange-red berry, whose shape is ovoid or oblong, 7–15 millimetres (0.28–0.59 in) long and 5 to 8 mm wide (but up to 22 millimetres (0.87 in) long and 10 millimetres (0.39 in) wide in cultivation).[4] It contains compressed yellow seeds, from 2.5 to 3 mm wide, with a curved embryo; their number varies widely based on cultivar and fruit size, from 10 to 60. The berries ripen from July to October in the Northern Hemisphere.
Disease
It can be parasitized by the oomycete species Peronospora lycii.[9]
Similar species
Lycium chinense can be distinguished from the very similar Lycium barbarum by morphological traits of the flowers. The corolla tubes of barbarum are significantly longer than the lobes, and the calyx of chinense usually has more than two lobes whereas barbarum has just two.[citation needed]
Use
The fruits may be infused with hot water to make goji tea. The plant has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine for treating various disorders,[citation needed] although there is no high-quality clinical evidence that consuming it has any effect on health or disease.
Chemistry
The fruit composition is similar to that of L. barbarum, with polysaccharides, carotenoids and flavonoids as main constituents.[10] Rutin is a prominent flavonoid, while the main carotenoid is zeaxanthin dipalmitate (49% of the carotenoid fraction), with β-carotene, two cerebrosides, and three pyrrole derivatives as other constituents.[10] Citric acid is the major nonvolatile organic acid in the leaves followed by oxalic acid.[10]
Dozens of secondary metabolites have been isolated and identified from the roots, root bark, and leaves, including cyclic peptides, alkaloids, and flavonoids.[10]
Gallery
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Habitus -
Leaves and buds -
Leaves and flower -
Leaves and flower -
Berries -
Dried berries
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See also
References
- ↑ "The Plant List: Lycium chinense var. chinense".
- ↑ "The Plant List: Lycium chinense var. potaninii".
- ↑ [{{#property:P1421|}} "{{#Property:P225}}"] Check
|url=value (help). Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 10 January 2018. - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Flora of China treatment for L. chinense".
- ↑ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Lycium chinense". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
- ↑ [1] Xinhua News Agency, Opening ceremonies of Ningxia wolfberry festival, August 3, 2005.
- ↑ [2] Staff reporter, China's first provincial-level wolfberry association established, People's Daily Online, August 19, 2001.
- ↑ [3] Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine Yunyun L. Dry no more. BeijingReview.com.cn, October 11, 2008.
- ↑ Constantinescu, O. (1991). "An annotated list of Peronospora names". Thunbergia. 15.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Olivier Potterat (2010). "Goji (Lycium barbarum and L. chinense): Phytochemistry, pharmacology and safety in the perspective of traditional uses and recent popularity". Planta Medica. 76 (1): 7–19. doi:10.1055/s-0029-1186218. PMID 19844860.
External links
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Look up wolfberry or 枸杞子 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lycium chinense. |
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