Goji berry has been widely used as medicine and food in China, it also has clear chemical compositions and pharmacological effect. However, goji berry leaves are not valued by people, people do fewer researches on their pharmacological effects, Existing studies have shown that the chemical compositions of goji berry leaves are similar to those of goji berry fruit, goji berry leaves mainly contain polysaccharide ingredients, polyphenols, vitamins and trace elements which are higher than those of goji berry fruit.
- Polysaccharide
The main component of polysaccharide ingredients is goji berry polysaccharide, and the content of it that is higher than that in goji berry fruits is up to 10.23%; as for the structure, goji berry leaves are formed by neutral sugar, protein, galacturonic acid and other ingredients, and neutral sugar includes Arabia sugar, rhamnose, galactose, glucose, mannose, xylose and others. Gong Guiping separated and purified LBLP5-A of goji berry polysaccharides from goji berry leaves, and the relative molecular mass is 1. 13 × 105, the ratio of relative molar rhamnose , Arabia sugar and galactoseis 0.5: 1.9: 1.0.
- Polyphenols
There are more than 100 kinds of diseases related to free radicals in the body, and as for polyphenols, especially flavonoids, they have a significant effect on scavenging free radicals antioxidant and antitumor.
Flavonoids are the main active substances in goji berry leaves, flavonoids in goji berry leaves are similar to but high than that in goji berries, goji berry leaves are rich in polyphenols in original plants, and are a new resource for the future food. By using LC-PDA-ESI-MS to analyze phenolic compounds inextracts of goji berries, people found the main substances were rutinquercetin, kaempferol, isorhamnetin, isoquercitrin, luteolin, kaempferol -3-O-rutin glycosides, acacetin, acacetin -7-O-, glucoside chlorogenic acid, gentisic acid, caffeic acid, mono-caffeoylquinic acid, dicaffeoylquinic acid, feruloylquinic acid and kaempferolrutinoside etc. The rutin which is the most important ingredient in goji berry leaves is as much as 92% of total flavonoids. In addition, different goji berry leaves contain different chemical compositions, after identifying with the method of HPLC-UV-MS, people find that the content of rutin and quercetin in goji berry leaves are higher than those in Ningxia goji berries, and the gentisic acid, caffeic acid andkaempferol can only be detected in goji berries.
- Terpenoids
After comprehensive analysis of GCMS on volatile components in giji berry leaves, people found terpenoids in goji berry leaves, such as ionol, mentholand 3-hydroxy-7, 8-dehydro—ionone.
- Steroid
People have severed sitosterol, glucoside, gycosides of A and B sterols, iso fucosterol, campesterol, colesterin, stigmasterol and others.
- Others
Goji berry leaves contain many components which are higher than those in goji berries. Except the above components, there are more than 20 kinds of amino acids, vitamins, carotenoid and trace elements such as Fe Zn Ca Mg Se Mn P. The main amino acids in goji berry leaves are aspartic acid, glutamate, alanine and proline, and most of them are free. In addition, compared with oolong tea Longjing tea and Tie Guanyin tea, goji berry leaves contain higher contents of Fe and Zn.
