The Tibetan Goji berry is a member of the Solanecea family, the "mother plant" to the Chinese (lycium) wolfberry. The locals explain that the Chinese took this plant from Tibet over two centuries ago and since have polluted it, cross-cloned it, and contaminated the soils in which the wolfberries grow with DDT and other pesticides.
A recent botanical research tour which visited all of the botanical farms in all of the provinces report there are no organic farms in China and the wolfberries produced there are highly contaminated with pesticides. The Tibetan Gojiberries offered on this website have been grown in protected valleys in wild and cultivated areas of Inner Mongolia in million year-old soil where pesticides have never been used.
A Note About Tibetan Gojiberries:
There are now many companies selling wolfberry as Goji and it is their mistake. Those companies are either very confused or out to make a buck on the Tibetan culture, as the name Goji refers to the Tibetan wild variety and Wolfberry refers to the Chinese cultivated variety, each grown in different countries in very different soil and growing conditions.
The Tanaduk Botanical Research Institute began the process of bringing the Goji berry into the world view in 1973 as it was chosen to be used as a vehicle to awareness of endangered plants used in Tibetan and traditional Himalayan medicine and to support propagation and conservation projects for these endangered plants. Tanaduk officers set up many protection standards to preserve the Goji growing area's from over harvesting and for appropriate distribution of this special berry.
The Tibetan Goji Berry Company was established to be a single controller for distribution requests because the Tibetan Goji berry is a limited wild crafted harvest and for centuries primarily used by Tibetan medical doctors for medicine and lay people as a nutritious food. So they are proportioned their needs first and the rest is made available for the world market.
All of that is on the research pages. Most of the phony 'Goji' companies out there stole much of their information from Tanaduk Botanical Research Institute which is staffed primarily with Tibetan Doctor Lama's and Tibetan, Indian and Western botanical researchers who began collaboration and Goji research in 1973.
An Introduction to the small but powerful Authentic Wild Harvested Raw Tibetan Goji Berry:
Imagine a small red berry, about the size of a grape, growing on a vine in the hills of Tibet and Inner Mongolia. A small red berry that harvesters are careful to avoid touching with their bare hands so as not to oxidize the flesh of the fruit. A small red berry containing more amino acids than bee pollen, more protein than whole wheat and more beta-carotene than carrots. A little red berry that will dry to the size of a currant in the shade of the mountains within which it has grown before being exported across the globe to those who have only recently, despite its 2000 year plus traditional history, discovered it. Goji is the colloquial name given only to this Tibetan berry by the Indigenous Tibetan and Mongolian people of the region. Local growers are careful to distinguish the Goji berry (Fructus Lycium Tibetica) from its distantly related offspring, the Chinese Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum), pointing out that whilst the later evolved (over centuries) from the Goji berry, its genetic makeup differs considerably, as do the regions within which these two different berries are growing.
How did the Berries become available?
Goji berries grow naturally wild and in profusion in the very remote valleys of the Himalayas of Tibet and Inner Mongolia and can be harvested with ease. Such foundations for simple farming and a desire to preserve the traditional Tibetan medicines and practices, prompted the director of the Tanaduk Botanical Research Institute of Tibetan Medicine, together with directors of His Holiness The Dalai Lama's Institute of Tibetan Medicine, to view the Goji berry in a new light - here was an opportunity to simultaneously conserve and educate. In the mid seventies the Tibetan Medicinal Plant Conservation Program was created under the auspice of the Tanaduk Institute.
For almost thirty years it has been the aim of the Program to support Tibetan farmers, support the teaching of cultivation and wild crafting methods, and to raise global awareness of various indigenous flora, their attributes and the cultural significan ce assigned to them. This in turn is working to raised funds that help to preserve these endangered plants and traditions. When thinking about getting the berries into distribution supply lines for the world market a very thoughtful and protective distribution method arose out of concern for over popularity in the world market of a single botanical or group of botanicals.
The Goji Farmers Collective (a co-op) was created to support these wild crafters and farmers and protect these ancient wild growing areas. Through it, the Tanaduk Botanical Research Institute who began organized the farmers into a co-op in 1974, has been able to negotiate fair trade wages for the wild crafters and farmers and to attain contracts for the worldwide export of Goji berries. They have set in place The Tibetan Goji Berry Company, the only authorized supplier for the distribution, wholesale and retail sale of the authentic Goji berry from these ancient medicinal valleys and precious Goji growing regions.
This single office will then be able to control the distribution so that the traditional Tibetan clinic's, DSoctor/Amchi's and medicine factories will have their Goji supplies first and then the rest is made available to the world market. Over harvesting is now not an issue as wild crafting standards are well practiced and the traditional Himalayan medical clinics that have been using these Goji berries for medicines over the centuries will still always be getting the supplies they need every year as they are part of the distribution protection plan established by Tanaduk Institute and highly trained Tibetan medical Lama's and botanical conservationists.
What is the difference between Tibetan Goji Berries and Wolf Berries?
In our research on the subject we found that not all Lyciums are created equal. Out of over forty Lycium varieties, the three most potent berries in the Lycium family are the wild Tibetan Goji berries found growing wild in Tibet and Mongolia, next the cultivated Chinese Ningxia wolfberries and Chinese Xinjiang wolfberries which all belong to the Lycium genus and are cultivated on huge farms in China that produce hundreds of thousands of tons a year. The farms report the use of several types of 'safe' pesticides which may undermine the benefits of their Lycium berry.
Tibetan Goji berries are well respected and celebrated within the nomadic tribes and throughout the ancient culture of Tibet and Mongolia. Wolfberries are a national treasure in China, have been used in traditional Chinese folk medicine for over a few thousand years and Goji berries in Tibet for even longer. In those ancient times Tibet was large and included Mongolia and much of China. Ancient Chinese and Tibetan medical texts celebrated these berries for their wide range of health benefits including strengthening the "chi" or life force of the body.
The people who consumed this fruit apparently lived free of common diseases like arthritis, cancer and diabetes. Moreover, their life expectancy has reached over 100 years. In ancient China the Lycium from 'the roof of the world' Tibet was sought after as the best of all Lyciums and even referred to as the Mother of all Lyciums. The Chinese brought their variety from Tibet and is now called wolfberry and is cultivated rather then grown wild like the Tibetan variety is. For this and other reasons explained below the Tibetan Goji berry has more wild potent power and is the Lycium the great Tibetan physicians have chosen to use for these many centuries.
What makes the Tibetan Goji Berry so powerful?
The Goji berry has traditionally been utilized to nurture the heart, strengthen the immune system, facilitate optimal liver function and treat insomnia. It also increases visual perspicacity and, as a traditional blood tonic, it has a proud heritage in the treatment of forgetfulness, lethargy and anxiety related to blood and chi deficiencies. Recently the subject of various scientific studies throughout the world, Goji berries have been found to be effective in increasing white blood cells and depressing the activity of cancer cells.
In studies conducted in countries such as Mongolia, Japan, China and Switzerland, researchers have determined that the Goji berry fruit (as well as an extract from the leaves of the plant) is capable of killing some kinds of cancer cells under laboratory conditions. This is thought to be primarily due to the presence of 124ppm of organic Germanium contained within the berries. According to Japanese studies, organic Germanium may be useful in the treatment of liver, lung, uterine, cervical and testicular cancer in combination with other drugs.
It would appear that Goji berries, as a consequence of the Germanium as well as other constituents of the plant, are capable of inhibiting the hydrogen ion in the cancer cells, thereby depressing the  synthesis of cancerous DNA. Many more studies are yet to be conducted and scrutinized by the medical and scientific communities, but it would appear that in essence the Goji berries might be helping to lower the reproductive capacity of cancerous cells.
In 1988, the Beijing Nutrition Research Institute conducted detailed chemical analysis and nutritional composition studies of the dried Lycium fruit, this is what they discovered. In addition to being packed with vitamins B1 and B6 (which is needed by the body to convert food (into energy), and vitamin E (which has never been found in fruit before), the Lycium berries contain more protein then whole wheat, 18 amino acids (8 of them essential for life), 21 trace minerals (including significant amounts of zinc, iron, copper, calcium, selenium, phosphorus and germanium; a very rare anti-cancer agent almost never found in food), more beta carotene than carrots, 500 times more vitamin C by weight than oranges, essential fatty acids (required for the production of hormones and smooth functioning of the brain and nervous system) and is the richest source of carotenoids (natural fat-soluble pigments that play a critical role in vitamin A activity in humans) of any food on the planet.
Another important finding about Lycium berries is they have been found to have extremely high levels of immune-stimulating polysaccharides. What are olysaccharides? Polysaccharides are very large, long-chain sugar molecules that are nourishment for macrophages (large white blood cells) in the gut wall. The macrophages are then transported to other immune cells, setting off a chain of defensive events in our bodies.
Several years ago German researchers isolated polysaccharides from Echinacea purpurea (often used in medicinal formulations) and mixed them with macrophages in test tubes. They found that the polysaccharides profoundly activated the macrophages, stimulating them to effectively kill tumor cells. Also it was found macrophages increased their production of interleukin, a chemical which spurs the immune system to greater activity, and the polysaccharides also enhanced the activity of B lymphocytes, immune-system cells which fight bacterial infections.
Why should we care about phagocytes? Phagocytes are a crucial component of the immune system and are found in the spleen. They digest foreign substances that invade the body including bacteria and other disease causing organisms. Having large numbers of phagocytes in the spleen will enable the body to more quickly eliminate foreign substances and thus prevent the development of potential illness.
The effects were astounding. Spleenic phagocyte cell counts (immune cells) increased by 81% and the ORAC (antioxidant capacity) the subjects' whole blood increased as well. Essentially, you could say the subjects' blood became younger.
I believe this little fruit can change the health of the world. Tell your friends about it. If more people knew about Tibetan Goji berries maybe the world health organization would have less to do.
Here is a short list of other health promoting compounds found in the Tibetan Lycium berry:
Beta Sitosterol: An anti-inflammatory agent found to lower cholesterol, and used to treat sexual impotence and prostrate enlargement.
Zeaxanthin and Lutine: Valued for their role in protecting the eyes. Betaine: Used by the liver to produce Choline which assists detoxification reactions in the liver.
Betaine: Is known to protect DNA, enhance memory, promote muscle growth and protects us from fatty liver disease.
Cyperone: A sesquiterpene used in treatment of cervical cancer. It is also known to benefit heart and blood pressure problems as well as menstruation problems.
Solavetivone: A powerful anti-fungal and anti-bacterial agent.
Physalin: A natural compound that boosts the immune system. Found to be effective in treating leukaemia, hepatitis B and cancer.
What is the Tibetan Goji ORAC rating?
A laboratory procedure was recently developed to measure the amount of antioxidants the foods we eat contain. The procedure known as ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) was developed by Dr. Guohua Cao at USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, USA. ORAC is one of the most sensitive and reliable methods for measuring the ability of antioxidants to absorb free radicals. It is the only test to combine both time and degree of inhibition of free radicals.
According to Tufts University, the average person needs approximately 3,000 to 5,000 ORAC units per day to have a significant impact on plasma and tissue antioxidant capacity. Three servings of fruits and vegetables per day provide approximately 1200 ORAC units. This means the average person is short by up to 3800 ORAC units each day, depending on the fruits and vegetables they are choosing and their body's requirements. To make up the difference, experts recommend supplementing our diet with high ORAC foods to become and stay healthy and slow down the aging process caused by free radical damage.
The Lycium berry was rated the food with the highest antioxidant ability coming in at an amazing 3,472 ORAC units per fluid oz. Some of the other notable mentions are vitamin E oil at 3,309, pomegranates at 3,037, blueberries 2,400, raspberries 1,220.
How do I use the Tibetan Goji Berry?
The fruit is eaten either fresh or dried and can be added to cooking, cereals, trail mixes or smoothies as well as being eaten alone. The flavor of the Goji berry is difficult to describe – sweet with a slight tartness (similar to a cranberry but sweeter). Incredibly high in iron, Goji berries are exceptionally nutrient rich, containing up to 21 trace minerals and 18 amino acid. They are especially high in Vitamins A, C, E, B1, B2 and B6, and contain considerably more Vitamin C than an orange. The Goji berry has also been found to contain other complex compounds, such as Betaine (useful for improving liver function and reputed to enhance memory), Solavetivone (a compound containing a anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties), and Beta-Sitoserol (an anti-inflammatory agent that may also help in the treatment of hypertension). An average daily serving of a ¼ cup of dried Goji berries would also contain 4grams each of dietary fiber and protein.
Proprietary Note:
This information is for the intended recipient(s) on the KarmicDelights.com webpage and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this information is strictly prohibited.
©1997-2005 by The Tibetan Goji Berry Company, L.L.C. This may not be posted on commercial sites without written permission from The Tibetan Goji Berry Company.
© Siboney Saavedra-Duff 2005
Tibetan Gojiberries (Prices/Discounts):
No. of 18oz Bags
1 - 4 Bags $19.50 per Bag
5 - 9 Bags $18.50 per Bag
10 - 24 Bags $17.50 per Bag
25 - 40 Bags $15.50 per Bag
The berries are also available in 11lb bulk bags. The price is $190/bag.
All prices are retail. For wholesale pricing please email us.
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