Analysis on the main active components of Lycium barbarum fruits and related environmental factors

Abstract

Fruits of Lycium barbarum L. (wolfberry or “Gouqi” in Chinese) are widely used as traditional Chinese medicine and functional food in China, South-east Asia, Europe and North America. Polyphenols, polysaccharides and carotenoids are the main active compounds in L. barbarum fruits. Based on a rapid sample preparation with ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) established, contents of polyphenols, polysaccharides and carotenoids of L. barbarumfruits from 8 main producing areas of western China were analyzed and the related environmental factors were investigated. The results are: L. barbarum fruits from Zhongning showed the highest polyphenols contents (2.9749%) and the highest antioxidant activity (RSA = 56.82%), the highest content of polysaccharides (8.9041%) was from Jinghe, the highest content of carotenoids (0.1642%) was from Julu; the highest fruit weight and pulp weight were from Numhon. Contents of polysaccharides, polyphenols and carotenoids were significantly affected by environmental factors: the principle factor for polyphenols was soil organic matter (SOM) (r = 0.964), the principle factors for carotenoids were temperature-sunshine (r = 0.826), polysaccharides were mainly affected by soil available phosphorus (r = 0.75), fruit weight or pulp weight were negatively correlated with temperature (r = 0.953, 0.963). Each of the three active components has its own genuine producing area rather than Zhongning as the only genuine producing area authenticated. Key words: L. barbarum fruits, polyphenols, antioxidant activity, polysaccharides, carotenoids, genuineness.