Phytochemical Investigation of Lycium Barbarum Fruits

Goji berries, Lycium barbarum L. (Solanaceae), is a well known traditional Chinese medicine. It is recorded in Chinese pharmacopoeia as Goqizi and used for enhancing liver and kidney functions [1]. Its pharmacological activities include hypoglycemic, immuno-modulation, antihypertension, lipotropic, hepatic function protecting, anti-aging, anti-fatigue, antioxidant and so on [2]. It is distributed from southeast of Europe to China [3]. Although many phytochemical and pharmacological research on polysaccharides from Goji berries have been reported, a limited number of chemical studies on the nonpolar constituents have been carried out so far [4]. A comprehensive phytochemical investigation of nonpolar constituents from Goji berries resulted in the isolation of 19 compounds. The isolates include sitosterols, 5-membered heterocyclics, phenolics, glycosphingolipids and glycosides with a polyunsaturated long alkyl chain. Acknowledgements: Thanks to the China Scholarship Council for funding assistance. References: [1] The pharmacopoeia Commission of P.R.China (2005) The Pharmacopoeia of P.R.China I: 174. [2] Sun Z (2001) Northwest Pharmacy J. 16(3): 133–135. [3] Mabberley DJ (2000) The Plant-Book (second edition) p.425. [4] Toyoda-Ono Y, et al. (2004) J. Agric. Food Chem. 52: 2092–2096.