Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides)

Human beings have been using this shrub for at least 1200 years. The plant known in English as seabuckthorn, was recorded in the Tibetan medicinal classics (the Four Books of Pharmacopoeia) completed in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). Although China was one of the earliest countries in the world to use seabuckthorn as a medicinal plant, until 1980 its use was limited to Tibet and Mongolia. The processing of seabuckthorn medicinal products did not start in China until 1986. It has proven to be a profitable crop because of its many uses in the medicinal, food, and cosmetic industries.

At present, 1.2 million hectares (95 percent of world total) of seabuckthorn are under cultivation in 19 provinces. Seven breeding stations have been established to select new varieties adapted to different biogeographic regions.

In China, there are an estimated 740,000 hectares and 300,000 hectares of natural and cultivated plants. As of 1995, more than 10,000 people were employed on various aspects of plant development, 95 percent are located in rural areas and do not include farmers. Because major economic benefits can be realized quickly (in three or four years) farmers are keen to plant. Approximately 50,000 tons of seabuckthorn berries are harvested annually and processed into 200,000 tons of various products valued at $35.7 million. The Chinese government has invested more $25 million in seabuckthorn research and development.

The shrub has attracted a great deal of attention from scientists and engineers around the world because of its combined ecological and economic benefits. The seabuckthorn root system, for example, is so extensive that its roots can branch many times in a growing season and form a complex underground network that holds the soil from slippage like wire reinforcing mesh in concrete. When plants are buried under sediments massive adventitious roots extend to form new horizontal root systems. An individual plant can propagate massive bushes or a small forest in several years. This is why the seabuckthorn bushes play such a prominent role in protecting river banks, preventing floods and minimizing slope erosion. The plants are considered more effective than any construction work. Furthermore, its role in rehabilitation and upgrading of marginal or fragile slopes through soil-binding is well documented.

Where land degradation and its accompanying poverty occur it can play an important role in soil and water conservation and land rehabilitation. Seabuckthorn is a multipurpose plant, and its potential is far from fully exploited. With further study, more and more uses could be developed in the near future. Its humanitarian and economic benefits can be summarized as follows. The plant is:

· a source of low-priced vitamins, seabuckthorn fruits can benefit millions of children suffering from vitamin A deficiency.

· a means for generating cash income, it has since 1985, in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, provided farmers with earnings of about $1.06 million from the sale of fruit every year.

· an option for stabilizing mountain slopes it is selected by farmers and engineers because of its extensive root system, soil binding qualities, its provision of good surface cover, and its utility as fodder, food, fuelwood, and supplier of medicine.

It seems no wonder, therefore, that a 1990 assessment put China's total area of seabuckthorn at about I million hectares, and the total value of its products at more than $20 million per year. Moreover, between 1991-1995, an additional 330,000 hectares were scheduled to be bought under seabuckthorn cultivation.

Description:

The shrubs reach 0.5–6 m tall, rarely up to 10 m in central Asia. The leaf arrangement can be alternate, or opposite.
Common Sea-buckthorn foliage and berries

Common sea-buckthorn has branches that are dense and stiff, and very thorny. The leaves are a distinct pale silvery-green, lanceolate, 3–8 cm long and less than 7 mm broad. It is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. The male produces brownish flowers which produce wind-distributed pollen. The female plants produce orange berry-like fruit 6–9 mm in diameter, soft, juicy and rich in oils. The roots distribute rapidly and extensively, providing a non-leguminous nitrogen fixation role in surrounding soils.

Hippophae salicifolia (willow-leaved sea-buckthorn) is restricted to the Himalaya, to the south of the common sea-buckthorn, growing at high altitudes in dry valleys; it differs from H. rhamnoides in having broader (to 10 mm broad), greener (less silvery) leaves, and yellow berries. A wild variant occurs in the same area, but at even higher altitudes in the alpine zone[citation needed]. It is a low shrub not growing taller than 1 m with small leaves 1–3 cm long.
[edit] Species

* H. goniocarpa Y.S.Lian & al. ex Swenson & Bartish
* H. gyantsensis (Rousi) Lian
* H. litangensis Y.S.Lian & X.L.Chen ex Swenson & Bartish
* H. neurocarpa S.W.Liu & T.N.He
* H. rhamnoides L. - Common Sea-Buckthorn
* H. salicifolia D.Don
* H. tibetana Schlecht.

A study of nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence data [5] has suggested that the genus can be divided into three monophyletic clades:

* H. tibetana
* H. rhamnoides with the exception of H. rhamnoides ssp. gyantensis (=H. gyantensis)
* The remaining species.

A study using chloroplast sequences and morphology, however, recovered only two clades:

* H. tibetana, H. gyantsensis, H. salicifolia, H. neurocarpa
* H. rhamnoides

Both studies concluded that H. goniocarpa and H. litangensis originated as hybrids.

Traditional Medicine

Different parts of sea-buckthorn have been used as traditional therapies for diseases.As no applications discussed in this section have been verified by science and sufficient clinical trial evidence, such knowledge remains mostly unreferenced outside of Asia and is communicated mainly from person to person, therefore falling into the category of folk medicine.

Grown widely throughout its native China and other mainland regions of Asia, sea-buckthorn is an herbal remedy reputedly used over centuries to relieve cough, aid digestion, invigorate blood circulation and alleviate pain.

Bark and leaves may be used for treating diarrhea and dermatological disorders. Berry oil, taken either orally or applied topically, may be used as a skin softener.

For its hemostatic and anti-in?ammatory effects, berry fruits are added to medications for pulmonary, gastrointestinal, cardiac, blood and metabolic disorders in Indian, Chinese and Tibetan medicines.Sea-buckthorn berry components have potential activity against cancer and dengue virus.