Recently, a “5,000 people into the Qinghai Golmud grasslands to steal wild black wolfberry” news, the black wolfberry pushed the public opinion on the edge of the storm. For black wolfberry can “sweep the body of harmful free radicals” effect, cloud no heart introduced, in the body’s normal life metabolism, the cell will produce some oxygen free radicals. Recently, a “5,000 people into the Qinghai Golmud grasslands to steal wild black wolfberry” news, the black wolfberry pushed on the edge of public opinion. This is called “soft gold” black wolfberry, the market price of dried fruit climbed to more than 4,000 yuan a catty, was crowned with “anti-aging, cancer bane” and other magical effects. However, recently a science expert wrote an article saying that there is no clinical scientific basis for the “miraculous effect” of black wolfberry, and it is not tenable from the perspective of theoretical analysis. Tumor treatment Chinese medicine experts also said, did not find the black wolfberry anti-cancer efficacy research data, high prices should be the result of commercial hype. The price skyrocketed grassland mad rush “soft gold” According to media reports, black wolfberry is growing in the Qinghai Golmud prairie wild plants, for the grassland, is an important vegetation to prevent wind and fix sand. But from August 10, 2015 to the present, more than 5,000 people flocked to ransack more than 3 million acres of grassland for the purpose of picking the bean-sized purple and black berries, with profit becoming the biggest motive. According to the report, the black wolfberry is called “soft gold”, the origin price has increased nearly 8 times in recent years, growing to nearly 500 yuan per kilogram. In germany a place called “golden triangle” is black wolfberry trading market, in a specialty store, black wolfberry retail is divided into four, the lowest 1200 yuan per kilogram, the highest 4400 yuan. Reporter in a large network shopping platform search found, two or three thousand dollars a catty of “wild black wolfberry” dried fruit abound, the most expensive “special grade products” sold to more than 4,000 a catty. There are engaged in the black wolfberry trade insiders said, in 2010, black wolfberry price per catty only sixty to seventy yuan. 2011, because some do traditional red wolfberry business began to focus on black wolfberry, after a large number of acquisitions all the way up the price. This industry insider said, now on the market black wolfberry has Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang and other origins, due to the high price of Qinghai origin, there are businessmen confuse origin to make profit, ordinary people are difficult to distinguish. In addition, due to the limited production of wild black wolfberry, also because of the “rare as precious” is sought after. However, industry insiders said that the current black wolfberry can be artificially planted, with the scale of production, the price should have a downward trend. The “magic Tibetan medicine” is a hype? Black wolfberry in the end what is the efficacy of the market hot? Enter “black wolfberry efficacy” on the search engine, there are hundreds of thousands of related words. Some articles claim that fresh black wolfberry is known as “the ‘soft gold’ of the beauty industry” due to its anthocyanin content, which far exceeds that of the queen of fruits, blueberry, and can be eaten to prevent wrinkles and anti-aging, as well as to supplement nutrition and eliminate harmful free radicals in the body. Black goji berry is also known as “the nemesis of the cancer world”, can make cancer cells can not spread smoothly, inhibit the development of cancer. In addition, the black wolfberry is also known as a miracle Tibetan medicine, vitamin medicine, can prevent cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even aphrodisiac effects. However, with the price of black wolfberry soaring all the way up, the questioning of black wolfberry has never stopped. 2014 has been media to question the miraculous efficacy of black wolfberry. Dr. Zhang Cun of the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine said in an interview with Health News that the Chinese pharmacopoeia does not contain black wolfberry, which means that the field of Chinese medicine has not yet affirmed the “miraculous” effect of the drug. Liu Chunsheng, an expert in Chinese medicine from the School of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, also said that the black wolfberry and the red wolfberry included in the national pharmacopoeia are of the same genus and different species, both are plants of the genus Lycium, family Solanaceae. Most of the components of the two kinds of wolfberry are the same, only because the fruit color is different, black wolfberry contains some anthocyanins. Dr. Liu Ming of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine said that the latest Pharmacology of Chinese Medicine only has Chinese wolfberry, and there is no black wolfberry. Beijing Tibetan Hospital, the director of the Department of Science and Education, deputy director of the Institute of Tibetan Medicine Zhong Gejia said: “Tibetan medicine in the Punma refers to the production of Chinese wolfberry plant whole plant, specifically to its fruit, Tibetan phonetic translation is ‘Pun Mai Zha Bu’. But Punmai Zebu is red, which is the red wolfberry in Chinese medicine.” Zhonggejia introduced, Punmai Zebu is mainly used for the treatment of heart fever, gynecological diseases, is a common common Tibetan medicine, does not belong to the precious rare medicine. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ethnic Medicine researcher then Kaiser @ Suleiman introduced, in the “Uygur Medicine Journal” does have a record of black wolfberry, the traditional Uygur use it as a single drug to treat gingivitis, urethral calculus and other diseases, is a less commonly used Uygur medicine. According to the Qilu Evening News, a researcher from a biological research institute, who did not want to be named, revealed that the edible value of black wolfberry was only discovered in 2006. Before that, black wolfberry was mostly eaten by local sheep. This researcher said that the antioxidant capacity of black goji berries is indeed somewhat higher than that of fruits such as blueberries and apples, but not much different from that of the common red goji berries. The processing of black fruit goji berry is generally backward, to manual picking, courtyard drying, easy to be sand, dust, microbial contamination, and 50 ℃ warm water does not kill the microorganisms in it, therefore, “consumption of black fruit goji berry should be cautious.” The black goji berry’s popularity is inseparable from its reputation as the “king of anthocyanins”. And even the health benefits of anthocyanins, there are different voices. In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to two companies selling goji berry juice, pointing out that they In 2006, the FDA issued warnings to two companies selling goji berry juice, stating that the health benefits of their products were illegal as advertised on their websites. In response to the efficacy of black wolfberry to “cleanse the body of harmful free radicals”, Cloudless introduced that in the normal metabolism of human life, some oxygen free radicals will be produced in cells. Free radicals can attack DNA, protein, fat and so on. Therefore, it is believed that the free radicals in the body are the cause of aging and illness. Those substances that can scavenge free radicals or prevent oxidation reactions from occurring are known as antioxidants. Some studies have shown that the life span of nematodes was prolonged by adding certain antioxidants to the culture system of nematodes. However, other studies also point out that blind supplementation with antioxidants may produce unknown health risks. For example, Professor Xingen Lei of Cornell University, who overexpressed the antioxidants selenium and glutathione peroxidase (GPX1) in vivo through genetic techniques, found that: too much antioxidant had a negative effect on diabetes. “As a type of berry, the blackberry is just as good a fruit as the blueberry or blackberry. But that certainly doesn’t mean that it’s worth spending so much money to go after it. Eggplant, blueberries, grapes, kale, purple corn, and other blue and purple vegetables and fruits are all high in anthocyanins as well. Even though they don’t beat black goji berries in terms of content concentration, they can easily and happily be consumed in large quantities, thus killing the competition in terms of total intake.” Cloudless teases, “The most affordable way to beat black goji berry in anthocyanin content PK is: just go to the back kitchen of a restaurant and collect eggplant skins.” The anti-tumor prescription does not see the figure of black wolfberry Can black wolfberry fight cancer? The answer from experts is also negative. Su Xuchun, director of the Second Department of Integrative Medicine of the Cancer Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, told reporters that Chinese medicine plays a synergistic role in tumor treatment. “Some patients who are not suitable for radiotherapy and chemotherapy, we will give him treatment with TCM, but this treatment is with TCM compound, not just single formula or single herbs.” Su Xuchun said that even the TCM compound formula is not strong in anti-tumor effect, the main role is still to regulate the body and strengthen the body, to support the main, plus some anti-tumor ingredients to improve the patient’s survival quality and inhibit tumor development. “The possibility of beating tumors purely with TCM is relatively small.” According to Su Xuchun, Chinese medicine has been active in anti-tumor research in recent years, and some Chinese herbs have indeed been found to have anti-tumor effects, such as barley extract of Kangliao, which is ready to be marketed in the United States. Extracts from traditional Chinese herbs such as toadflax and arsenic have also been shown to have anti-tumor effects. “These have been tested in animals and humans before they can be used in the clinic. Black wolfberry, on the other hand, has neither relevant experimental basis nor clinical application, is its anti-tumor effect a kind of hype?” Experts believe that, similar to Cordyceps, wild black wolfberry may also be rare for precious, in the commercial hype driven by the efficacy is exaggerated, resulting in soaring prices. And many of the “anti-cancer food” circulated by the folk, in fact, has not been experimentally verified. Professor Shi Weiqun, chief physician of Zhejiang Xinhua Hospital’s famous Chinese Medicine Center, also believed in a media interview that the “Compendium of Materia Medica” records that black wolfberry can be used to treat heart fever, but the claim that it can fight cancer is obviously exaggerated. Black wolfberry has some medicinal value, but like the previously hyped maca and snow lotus, it has also been over-commercialized by modern society. There is no clinical trial data to show the “efficacy” of black wolfberry.