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”Goji" was popularized first in the United States by a juice marketed as though the berries came from high in the Tibetan Himalaya Mountains, giving the product an aura of rare pristine origin. In actuality, the origin of goji berries is the central China regions of the Yellow River valley, more than a thousand miles from the Himalayas.

Goji is one of nature’s special food gifts, a fruit laden with diverse nutrients, some of which approach or exceed 100 percent daily value from a 100-gram serving. Among nutrients in which it is rich are vitamins A (from beta-carotene) and C, riboflavin (vitamin B2), and five dietary minerals—copper, magnesium, potassium, selenium, and zinc—all of which are involved in a host of enzyme functions that maintain health. This fact is one key to goji’s possible contribution to overall well-being: just by having a rich diversity of essential nutrients, goji can influence most biological processes, all of which depend on enzymes, which in turn rely on mineral cofactors. Also significant in goji is its rich content of polysaccharides, which are high in macronutrient value as prebiotic fiber, providing a host of potential health benefits, such as the capability of lowering blood cholesterol and reducing cancer risk.

Typical of many members of the botanical plant family Solanaceae, which also includes the tomato, eggplant, and pepper, goji is phytochemically rich, characterized by having both major classes of pigments carotenoids and polyphenols, identified in laboratory research as having antidisease mechanisms. Goji appears to be one of the richest plant sources of the carotenoid zeaxanthin (closely related in chemical structure to the better-known lutein), which is taken up selectively by the human retina as a pigment, apparently for filtering intense sunlight. When localized in tissue, zeaxanthin and lutein appear as orange-yellow pigments, giving a small region of the human retina called the macula lutea the only such pigmentation in the body. The fruit contains cholesterol-lowering phytosterols and good levels in its seeds of vitamin E and omega-3 and -6 fatty acids, which are important to cardiovascular and brain health.

In scientific literature, the goji is referred to by its original name, wolfberry. As of early 2009, this fruit, having centuries of legendary use and decades of research interest in China, has still not stimulated significant enthusiasm among scientists outside Asia. In Asian laboratories, the berry’s constituents are under an extensive range of basic research, including potential applications against cancer; loss of vision with aging; cardiovascular, neurological, and inflammatory diseases; and immune disorders. A research group in Hong Kong has focused especially on the fruit’s potential antiaging effects, providing preliminary evidence for the inhibition of beta-amyloid toxicity in neuronal cell cultures (a laboratory model for Alzheimer’s disease) and the protection of retinal cells in experimental glaucoma. Discovering the specific compounds involved in these effects and the mechanisms by which they prevent eye diseases may reveal key information regarding how goji berries and similar natural products can support lifelong eye health.