[MPWG] goji berry?

[Conrad Richter]

On 19 Oct 2004, C Prakash Kala wrote:

> Regarding Goji berry, Dr. Bradley Dobos has a lot of work on this
> species. for more information, please visit the following website:
> 
>  http://www.google.co.in/search?q=chandra+prakash+kala&hl=en&lr=&start=10&sa=N
>
> Chandra Prakash Kala 

The above url gives google search results of Dr. Kala's work.  Perhaps
more immediate to original question would be the following website

http://www.gojiberry.com  (also http://www.tanaduk.com)

and the research section on the Tanaduk Botanical Research Institute of
Tibetan Medicine starting at

http://www.gojiberry.com/pages/research1.html
 
I would be interested to hear from anyone who has worked with goji
berry.  Earlier this year I was asked about the plant and I did a little
bit of checking around.  The botanical name attributed to goji berry,
Lycium eleagnus pungens, does not show up in international databases
that I checked so I didn't get very far before I had to abandon my brief
search. 

Dr Kala, you are a member of the board of directors of the Tanaduk
Botanical Research, and according to the Tanaduk website, you are
working on goji berry.  But going through the first few pages of the
above google search of your work I didn't see much specific about goji
berry, not online at least.  Could you please point me to which of your
articles or books deal with goji berry specifically?

When I first heard about "Tibetan goji berry", I asked members of the
Tibetan community about it.  I was surprised by the highly charged
response I got about Bradley Dobos.  Here is an excerpt from somone
within the Tibetan community who has known Dobos:

"I do believe Bradley is the singular original force promoting this Goji
Berry...  He is not a doctor, has never had a clinic here in Seattle
although he claims his retail shop, Tenzin Momo (long ago sold) was a
Tibetan medical clinic.  'He is the first westerner trained as a Tibetan
doctor resident in the United States and has been practicing traditional
botanical medicine since 1969.' this is absolutely false, and i can't
believe he can live with himself. Everything I read is an exaggeration
of the truth, for instance his shop in Seattle.  Another instance, his
'foundation' on Orcas island...while maybe growing a few plants (which I
also know as fact that he doesn't even know how to dig in the dirt!!) is
primarily a tax shelter.  Tibetans from MenTseKhan have awarded him some
"honorarium" physician of sorts for his work in promoting a tour they
were on about 7 or 8 years back. Lama Yeshe may have introduced Bradley
to the Dalai Lama where the Dalai Lama suggests Bradley to create a
foundation...maybe true but in perspective it was Bradley among maybe
100 other students of Lama Yeshe's back in the 70's hippy trippy freak
street era where the gathering was a general audience but Bradley writes
as though he was singled out in the 70's to create a foundation which
wasn't founded until early 2000 (yet in his research paper he claims
that the foundation was 'In the mid seventies Tanaduk Institute created
The Tibetan Medicinal Plant Conservation Program. Tanaduk's researchers
and officers set out to initiate botanical studies of endangered plants
and also to negotiate contracts with wildcrafted and now even semi
wildcrafted Goji crops.'  Utter nonsense.  completely Conrad..." 

I want to make it clear that I do not know Bradley Dobos and I don't
pretend to be expert enough to evaluate the claims about goji berry.  I
have been involved with the Tibetan community for many years and I was
completely taken aback by the rancour expressed towards Dobos.  To be
fair, I cannot characterize these sentiments as widely held because only
a few Tibetans are aware of his work with goji berry.  

As a grower and merchant of herb plants and seeds, I am always
interested in herbs new to me and new to my customers.  Goji berry may
well be everything that it is claimed to be; but naturally, in the face
of such strong comments from within the Tibetan community, I need to be
a bit circumspect.

Again, I am interested in hearing from anyone using the herb or working
with it, researchers and professional herbalists especially.  

Conrad Richter

> On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 Bob Beyfuss wrote:
> > Dear Friends,
> > A client has inquired about a herb called goji berry? possibly
> > Lythrium baberia (?) Does anyone have any references or general
> > information regarding this plant?
> > Thanks
> > Bob Beyfuss

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