Abstract
Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) extracts have been used in the treatment of some retinal degenerative diseases, mostly associated with other antioxidants. The ones this chapter focuses on are retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. Hereditary retinal dystrophies are a broad (and growing) group of hereditary disorders affecting the retina. Retinitis pigmentosa is perhaps the best known of them and is sometimes (inaccurately) used as a synonym for some of the other conditions in this category. Although these two entities show completely different etiologies: The first one is a group of hereditary diseases in which photoreceptor death occurs due to different mutations, and in the second the loss of photoreceptors is associated to the aging process, in both oxidative damage has been claimed as a pathophysiological mechanism. The present chapter reviews the antioxidant chemical features of wolfberry and wolfberry extracts, the oxidative mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of photoreceptor cell death, and the existing data on the use of wolfberry for retinal degenerations.
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