Among the leading food stories topping the list of the last decade spanning the close of the 20th century and the opening of the present one, is that of a golden-orange fruit with a husky apricot flavor. Its Latin binomial the world over is Hippophae rhamnoides (sandthorn). But it goes by a wide variety of names depending, of course, on where it is grown and used geographically as the short list below indicates.
GERMAN Sanddorn (Sandthorn)
FRENCH. Argousier
SWEDISH Finbar
HUNGARIAN Homokt vis
DANISH Tindved
POLISH Rokitnik
RUSSIAN Oblepiha
SPAIN Espino falso / Olivella spinosa
INDIA Jadu-paudha (Magic plant)
TIBET Dhar-bu
As can be seen, it has extensive use throughout much Europe and Asia. Its history is somewhat ancient going back a number of centuries. For our purposes here we will use the name of sandthorn by which the fruit is commonly known throughout much of Europe.
A Thousand-Year-Old Remedy
According to Oriental history, the Chinese were the first culture to utilize this berry as a remedy. Over a thousand years ago, it was recorded in Yue Wang Yao then from the Tang Dynasty and in Sibu Yidian, which writing was completed in the 8th century.
For those uninitiated in Oriental medicine, Sibu Yidian is the classical Tibetan medical book comprising four bulky volumes and consisting of a total of 158 chapters. Thirty chapters deal with sandthorn medicinal products. They mention the pharmacological effects on inducing the expectoration of phlegm (a yucky subject of itself) by opening the inhibited lung energy, dispersing dampness, tonifying the YIN and strengthening the YANG. In doing so the whole respiratory system is benefited and revitalized. More than sixty entries refer to its capacity to strengthen the spleen and the stomach, to promote blood circulation, and to remove old, stagnant blood. There are some 84 prescriptions with sandthorn, which come in the form of seven different preparations: decoction, powder, pill, medicinal extract, tincture, ash and, believe it or not, shortbread!
In the 18th century, Sibu Yidian was translated into Mongolian, and from there into various European languages for evaluation and commentary. In 1903, Sibu Yidian was published in the Cyrillic alphabet in St. Petersburg, where it became a favorite topic of study by many Russian scientists. In 1952, Xu Zhonghu, an associate professor of Sichuan Medical College in mainland China, rediscovered sandthorn in Tibet. Following this, his school took the lead in the medicinal preparation on the berry, with an academic thesis being written on it by Mr. Xu. It was entitled The Preliminary Research on the Fruit Juice of Seabuckthorn (yet another name by which it goes) and published in 1956. In 1977, the berry was listed in the official Chinese Pharmacopoeia or the first time.
A Cocktail of Components
Plant taxonomists are still uncertain whether to call sandthorn a bush or tree, because “the distinction between the two forms… in many cases is not clear.” The dark color ranges from white to black or brown to gray. One distinct characteristic for which H. rhamnoides is known is its “abundance of thorns”5, or in more familiar parlance of berry-pickers as the “ouch factor!” What makes this the world’s most popular berry right now is its “unique composition” of numerous nutrients which one scientific source has correctly described as being a combined “cocktail of components usually only found separately” in many other food sources.6 Several sources have placed its combined bioactive substances at 190 for the berries, of which 106 of these are found in the oil alone.
Just based on these facts, sandthorn berry leaves other exotic fruits such as mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), açai (Euterpe oleraceae), goji (lycium babarum) and noni (Morinda citrifolia) eating dust as it blazes its own trail of superior nutrition across the globe. When compared to them, sandthorn berry is the Golden Gloves heavy-weight champion in terms of its exceedingly high-nutritive values, knocking the others out ‘cold as a mackerel’ in the marketing ring of competition.
Show Me Yours and I’ll Show You Mine
The many manufacturers of these other exotic fruit juices have a self-serving mentality when it comes to boasting of what their particular flagship ingredients contain. The big slug-out between them all is usually over antioxidants, as in “mine is bigger than yours” regarding the quantities each is purported to contain.
Antioxidants are the latest buzzword in nutritional science these days, because they help maintain a balance in the formation of free radicals within the body. Free radicals are necessary for sustaining life, as strange as that may seem to some, but can also end up destroying the very same life if they get out of hand. In fact, we couldn’t exist without these scavenger molecules lacking electrons, which are the byproducts of burning oxygen in our cells. But at the same time, as a growing body of scientific research has found, they can also make us age faster, hurt in many places, and even die, beginning gradually at a cellular level and eventually proceeding from there to vital organs and master glands. Think of them like sharks zipping madly through the cellular seas in each one of us, ripping and tearing at our molecules like sharks in a feeding-frenzy when they get out of hand. They’ve been implicated in everything from Alzheimer’s, arthritis, cancer and cataracts to dandruff, Down’s syndrome, emphysema and hangovers, not to mention heart disease, paralysis, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia and stroke.
But the cavalry that comes to the rescue are antioxidants, “one of nature’s most ferocious protective systems” (as two Chicago Tribune Science writers so aptly put it years ago). This army of helpful chemicals found in nature degrades, neutralizes and detoxifies free radicals. It is because of these many forms of antioxidants that our cells get repaired often. Free radicals result when molecules are ripped apart and thrown out of electrical balance. In chemical terms, they are molecules with unpaired electrons; simply put, they are confused particles which have lost their soul mates.
Electrons – electrically charged particles that whirl about all atoms and molecules, ordinarily orbit in pairs. But when an oxygen atom is being broken down by the body as it produces energy, the reaction strips an electron away. That leaves an unpaired electron, in other words, a free radical. The impaired molecule desperately looks for another electron to cohabitate with and make itself whole again.
The only way it can is by stealing an electron from somewhere else, thereby throwing another molecule out of whack. This nasty process continues down the line causing a chain reaction. Eventually two free radicals merge and form a stable molecule. But before that happens, countless erratic electrons crash about in search of mates, wrecking unbelievable molecular havoc. In their ‘feeding frenzies”, these molecular sharks explode the fragile equilibrium of cells. They shatter the intricate process in which the messages of genes are transcribed into proteins. They demolish enzymes and other molecules. Food sources for additional free radicals include refrigerated leftovers containing fats and oils and cheeseburgers and fries.
The obvious solution is to incorporate things into the diet on a daily basis which are rich in antioxidants. This is where sandthorn berry comes into play. It is intensely rich in antioxidants, particularly carotenoids, fat-soluble pigments found in such deep green, yellow, orange fruits and vegetables as avocados, carrots, grapefruits, lemons, oranges, paprika, pineapples, pumpkins, rose hips, sweet potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, and watermelon, among others. Some 600 carotenoids have been identified thus far from natural sources, of which 39 have been isolated from sandthorn fruits. The average carotenoid content for 100 grams of sandthorn berry is 950 milligrams, most of which is located in the fruit’s membranes and its fleshy mesocarp. This is, by far, more than what is found in some of the previously mentioned exotic fruits.
Carotenoids protect cells and tissues from the damaging effects induced by free radicals and singlet oxygen. They provide enhancement of immune system functions, protect from sunburn, inhibit the development of certain types of tumors, and prevent oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) “bad” cholesterol and coronary heart disease.
In terms of everything else they do for the human body, antioxidants bring a ‘mental health’ kind of stability to schizophrenic tree radicals. And they are most abundant in sandthorn berries. Show me your exotic fruit antioxidants and I’ll gladly show you mine from sandthorn they’re bigger, better and more beautiful by far! Which makes the Snadthorn Berry and AlpineV ‘something very berry good for you’!