Goji

Lycium barbarum is a deciduous woody shrub of the nightshade family, 1 to 3 metres tall with weak arching branches, native to China and now found across Asia and south-eastern Europe. It is one of two boxthorns whose fruit is harvested as the goji berry or wolfberry, the other being Lycium chinense. The berry is bright orange-red, ellipsoid and 1 to 2 centimetres across. It has been cultivated along the Yellow River for more than 600 years, and Ningxia, whose product carries the Chinese name Ningxia gǒuqǐ, is the main growing region. Its berries are the only superior-grade wolfberries used by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. The fruit is rich in polysaccharides and carotenoids, chiefly zeaxanthin dipalmitate. The source says the alkaloid atropine, common in nightshades, is not detectable in it. In Britain it was planted for hedging.