SOURCE: · ** Emeritus Scientist, Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences, Delhi, formerly Director, Field Research Laboratory, Leh, Ladakh. Natural Product Radiance, July-August

,

A.S. Bawa"',Farhath Khanum and Brahma Singh'"Defence Food Research Laboratory, Siddhartha Nagar, Mysore 570 enl, India

* Correspondent author, E-mail: dfoodlab@;vsnl.com

** Emeritus Scientist, Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences, Delhi,

formerly Director, Field Research Laboratory, Leh, Ladakh.

Natural Product Radiance, July-August 2002

Introduction

Seabuckthorn (Hippophaerhamnoides Linn.) also called Sallow

thorn belonging to the family

Elaeagnaceae, is a deciduous shrub with

yellow or orange fruits (Li, 1996). It

rapidly develops an extensive root system

and is therefore, an ideal plant for

preventing soil erosion (Yao and

Tigerstedt, 1994). Seabuckthofll has also

been used in land reclamation (Schroeder

and Yao, 1995) for its ability to fix

atmospheric nitrogen and conserve other

essential nutrients (Akkermans et ai,1983). It can withstand temperatures from

-43 to 40°C (Lu, 1992). Although it is

considered to be drought resistant (Heinze

and Fiedler, 1981), irrigation is needed

in regions receiving <400 mm of rainfall

per year for better growth (Lu, 1992).

Legends about Seabuckthofll tell us how

the ancient Greeks used it in a diet for

race horse, hence it's botanical name

Hippophae - shiny horse derived.

According to another legend,

Seabuckthorn leaves were the

preferable food for flying

horse-Pegasus. One more legend

describes Hippophae as meaning

giving light to a horse of a supposed

power to cure equine blindness.

The name Seabuckthorn might be related

to the fact, that in England the spiny

shrubs and trees (it can grow either way,

depending on the soil and climate) of

Seabuckthofll used to grow in sand dunes

along the sea beaches. Similarly theGerman name for -oeabuckthorn

sanddorn may be translated as sand

spine. Taxonomically there are three

major Hippophae species: H.rhamnoides Linn., H. salicifolia D.

Don, and H. tibetana Schlecht (Rousi,

1971) . Afourth species, H. neurocarpaLiu & He, was described in 1978 (Liu

and He, 1978). Seabuckthorn is

distributed widely in the Himalayan

regions in Asia, Russia, Germany, China,

France, Romania, Central Asia,

Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan and India. The

plant is dioecious and so both male and

female plants must be grown in order to

obtain .fruits. Cross-pollination occurs

through wind. The fruits of Seabuckthorn

represent one of the important vitamin

sources for people living in cold and long

winter regions of the world. Because of

its multiple uses, Seabuckthofll is known

as wonder plant.

Botany

The Seabuckthorn plants are

spinescent shrub or a small tree up to 10m

in height with rough brown bark. Leaves

small, linear-Ianceolate, covered on both

sides with silvery scales. Flowers very

small, greenish or yellowish, appear with

new leaves; male in axillary clusters,

female solitary. Fruits small, ovoid, round

in shape with a diametcr of 6mm,

orange-yellow or scarlet in colour and sour

to highly acidic in taste. Seeds single,

oblong with shiny testa. The root system

makes it suitable even in fragile slopes.

A five-year-old plant will have a tap root

of about 5 meters deep, with horizontal

roots spreading six to tcn meters.

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Cultivation and distributionin India

Seabuckthorn plants naturally

growing in Ladakh region of Jammu and

Kashmirare locallyknown as a Tsermangor tasru - wonder plant. It has the

potential ofgreening Ladakhbylarge scale

plantation. The plant grows on a wide

range of soil conditions and is distributedwild over the four of the five valleys ofLadakh i.e. Nubra, Indus, Suru and

Zanskar, in a large area. Besides Ladakh,

it is also found in Lahaul and Spiti,

Kinnaur and Chamba region in HimachalPradesh, Uttranchal and in Sikkim.

Flowering generally occurs in May-June

and ripening sets in by late AugustSeptember.

..•••.Seabuckthorn canopy

The Field Research Laboratory,DRDO, Leh has initiated an extensive

study on the propagation and

utilization of this wonder plant.

They have found that Seabuckthorn can

be propagated by sexual (seeds) as well

as asexual (suckers and cuttings)

methods. Asexual method is preferred

since desired sexplants can be propagated.

For sexual propagation, seeds are soakedin water for 6-7 days to enable softeningof the hard seed coat. The seeds are sown

in beds under partial shade. The ideal

time for sowing seeds is mid Mayin Leh.The root system of the plant not only can

penetrate poor soil, but also has an

ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen: atypical plant fixes 180 kg of nitrogen each

year in the soil per hectare.

HarvestingHarvesting of fruit

is difficult,8-18 kg fruit canbe harvested by one person

in a day. Care is taken not

to damage the vegetation.There is a higher internal

ethylene concentration

in seeds which help in

ripening of fruit.External application of

ethylenemight decrease the

force required todetach the fruits. Before

sunrise fruits can be

harvested without causing

damage to plant. On an

average 600g ripe fruit isharvested from a well

developed plant. It can beseveral kilos (6-25)

depending upon the age of

the plant and the care- taken.

.Chemical compositionSeabuckthorn fruits are rich in

carbohydrates, protein, organic acids,amino acids and vitamins (Bernath and

Foldesi, 1992). These components vary

with fruit maturity (Bounous and Zanini,1988), fruit size (Chen et at, 1991) ,

species (Lu,1992) and geographic

locations (Wang,1990). Asshown in Table

1, the fruit contains 16 to 28 mgcarotenoids/l00 g of fruit, 310 to 2100mg flavonoids/l00g dry leaves, and 120

to 1000 mg/l00 g fruit, (Chen et at,1991), respectively. The reported totalvolatile oil in the fruit is 36 mg/kg, drymatter is 24.6% to 33.8%, and oil

extracted from seeds ranges from 8 to12% (w/w) and from pulp it is 2-4%.Saturated and unsaturated fatty acids are47 to 53% of the fat from the fruit pulpand 21 to 39% of the fat from the seed,

respectively.Theessential fattyacids (EFA)content in Seabuckthorn oil extract is

80-95%. Major EFA's are oleic andlinoleic. Others are pentadecenoic,

palmitoleic, heptadecenoic, linolenic,eicosenoic, eicosadecenoic, erucic andnervonic.

The vitamin C (ascorbic acid)

concentration (Table 2) ranges from 360

mg/IOOgfruit in European species to 250mg/IOOgfruit in Chinese species. Thus,concentration of this vitamin in fruit of

Seabuckthorn is higher than in strawberry(64 mg), kiwi (l 00-470 mg), orange (50

mg), tomato (l2mg), carrot (8 mg), andhawthorn (l00-150 mg) (Lu, 1992). Italso contains vitamin B1 (0.04 mg/l00g),vitamin B2 (0.56 mg/IOOg) and organicacids (2 - 4%). As shown in Table 3, Lu

(1992) reported that vitamin E contentin Seabuckthorn (202.9 mg/IOO g fruit)

is also higher than that in wheat embryo

(144.5 mg), safflower (3.3 mg), maize

(34 mg) and soybean (7.5 mg).



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Table 1: Chemical components of Seabuckthorn fruits

Unsaturated fatty acid (fruit) 53.0%

Saturated fatty acid (seed) 21.0%

ry matter 24.6-33.8%

Oil (seed) 8.0-12.0%

Saturated fatty acid (fruit) 47.0%

Reference

(1983)

Franke and Muller

(1983)

Franke and Muller

(1984)

Igoshina, et at (1987)

Lu (1992)

Franke and Muller

Kudritskaya, et at

(1989)

Chen, et at (1991)

Chen, et at (1991)

Hirvi and Honkanen

Content

120-2100 mg/lOO g fruit

310-2100 mg/100g fruit

3.6 mg/100 g fruit

16-28 mg/lOO g fruitCarotene and carotenoid

Flavonoids (fruit)

Flavonoids (leave)

Volatile oil

Component( s)

UtilizationSeabuckthorn can be used for

many purposes (Figure 1) and has .

considerable economic potential. Thefruits are used from ancient times in its

native places, Europe and Asia(Li,1996) .as a source of herbal medicines, health

foods and natural skin care. Recently, ithas attracted considerable attention from

researchers around the world, including

North America, mainly for its nutritionaland medicinal value.

Seabuckthorn is also high in

protein, especially globulins and albumins

(Solonenko and Shishkina,1983) and fatty

acids such as linoleic and linolenic (Lu,

1992). It is a good source of various free'amino acids (Table 4) and microelements

such as iron, potassium, calcium,

phosphorous, magnesium, sodium,

cobalt, selenium, molybdenum etc.

Table 2: Vitamin Ccontent (mg/tOO g) of Seabuckthom and other fruits

Unsaturated fatty acid (seed) 39.0%

(1983)

(1983)

Franke and Muller

_____ ..1.. _

Rousi and Aulin (1977);

Yao, et at (1992)-----1----- - __Yaoand Ticherstedt (1994)

Vitamin C (mg/l 00 g) Reference

-_._---~- ---64 Gonteaand Barduta (974)------. t------100-470 Lu (1992)

- - - --- t-- - -- - ---50 Lu (1992)- ------ I- - -- ---12 Lu (1992)

t-- --- -----l8 Lu (1992)----------- \

..!90-15~ __ ~ ....Lui1992)_

Fruit

Hawthorn

- - - I

>----

OrangeI- - - ITomato1--- Iearrot

H. rhamnoides I 360subsp rhamnoides~- - - ---H. rhamnoides I 250subsp sinensis1----Strawberryl-- - - - ---Kiwi

Medicinal

Clinical tests on medicinal uses

were first initiated in Russia during 1950s.

Seabuckthorn oil obtained from the juice

surface of fruits was formally listed in thepharmacopoeia in 1977 (Xu, 1994) and

clinically tested in Russia and China. Thereferences to medicinal uses ofSeabuckthorn were also found in Ancient

Greek Textattributed to Theophrastus andDiskorid in classic Tibetan medicinal texts

including "The RGyud Bzi" (the FourBooks of Pharmacopoeia) dated to the

times of Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).

The most important

pharmacological activities attributed toSeabuckthorn oil or pulp oil include:

anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial,

pain relief and the promotion oftissue regeneration. Seabuckthorn



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Table 3: Fatty Acids, Vitamin E, and ~-Carotenein Seabuckthom and

other plant products

Material

81.4

48.3

62.8

Vitamin E (mg/tOO g) ~-Carotene (mg/tOO g)

~- -~ -T: ._20

144.5

3.3

34.0 0.8

7.5 0.1

oil is also recommended as a

treatment for oral mucositis,

rectal mucositis, vaginal mucositis,cervical erosion, radiation damage,

heat burns, scalds, duodenal

ulcers, gastric ulcers, chilblains,skin ulcers caused by malnutrition,

poorly healing wounds and other

skin damage (Abartene andMalakhovskis, 1975; Buhatel et at, 1991;

Chen, 1991). More than ten different

drugs have been developed fromSeabuckthorn in Asiaand Europe and areavailable in different forms, such as

liquids, powders, plasters, films, pastes,

pills, ointments, suppositories, andaerosols (Li, 1996).

Cosmetics

According to an unconfirmed

report from China, on a study with 350

patients, beauty cream made withSeabuckthorn oil had positive

therapeutic effects on melanosis, senile

skin wrinkles, dryness and freckles

(Zhong et at, 1989). Seabuckthorn oilextract is beneficial for skin and facial

care, used to restore, improve and

nourish healthy skin. One of the most

well recognized properties ofSeabuckthorn oil is nourishing

revitalizing and restorative action on the

skin and mucous. It is known to improve

gum condition, combat gum bleeding

and eczema. High content of fat solublevitamins (A and E) and nutrients (EFAs,

phytosterol) make Seabuckthorn indispensable as restorative, anti ageing and

revitalizing agent for skin care.Various skin care and cosmetic

products made of Seabuckthorn produced

by Mis Floraleads GR are popular in

different parts of the world. Besides,Seabuckthorn oil extracts obtained with

olive oil, Floraleads GRproduces almondoil Seabuckthorn extracts valued as an

exclusive facial care product and"Rocasea" - obtained bydirect extraction

of Rose and Calendula petals intoSeabuckthorn oil.

The seed oil, which is an

unsaturated oil and shows promise,

because of its light absorption and

emollient properties as an ingredient incosmetics, phytopharmaceuticals or UV

skin protectant preparations. The seed

oil absorbs strongly in the UV-Brange(290-320 nm) and maytherefore, be usedas a natural sunscreen absorber

(Beveridge et at, 1995).

A beauty cream based on

Seabuckthorn oil is reported to have

positive therapeutic effects on many skindiseases, and clinical trails in Shantow

Tropical Diseases Hospital, Nepal andShanxiPharmaceutical Research Institute,

Nepal indicated that Seabuckthorn extract

can improve metabolism and retard skinmaturation. Skin can be made smooth

and softer, baldness can be retarded, and

hair growth improved.

Nutraceutical

Seabuckthorn oil is also used as

a dietary supplement taken to improve theconditions of the mucous membranes and

as a natural source of carotenes,

phytosterols and EFAs. Tincture (MisFloraleads GR) made of Seabuckthorn oil

combines the properties of dietary supple

ment and digestive system aid. Thetincture was traditionally used to improve

sluggish digestion and stimulate lazy

stomach by Tibetans. Nutritional value oftincture is related to the high content of

flavonoids, vitamin K and tannins.Several Tibetan medicinal texts (includ

ing Shel-Irang) describe the use ofSeabuckthorn to help improve stomach

function and maintain proper activity of

gastro intestinal tract. Recent studiesindicate that the Seabuckthorn flavonoids

help maintain circulatory system.



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PharmaceuticalsCosmetics

Tea

Animal feed

ResiduesOilJuicePulpVolatile oil

•

PharmaceuticalsCosmetics

Pharmaceuticals I I TernaryCosmetics juiceDrinks, Flavours

& Fragrances

Oil ResiduesSports drink II Pharmaceuticals II Animal feedHealth drink Cosmetics

Food II Pharmaceuticals I I AnimalBeverages Cosmetics feedBrewery

Fig.]. Potential uses of components from different parts of Seabuckthorn


Value-Added Products

The flavour offruits is like a sharp

lemon. Numerous products have been

made from it including tea from leaves,beverages (Beveridge et aI, 1995;

Chauhan et aI, 2001), jam and pickle from

fruits; fermented products from pulp; and

animal feeds from leaves, pulp and seed

residues (Li, 1996). The fruit pulp

remaining after juice removal providesfor extraction of "Seabuckthron yellow",

a pigment that has potential use as

Leh Berry soft drinkavailable in market.

Pouch (left), bottle (below).

a food coloring material. (Chen et aI,

1995; Liu et aI, 1989). Defence

Research and Development

Organization (DRDO), India has

developed technologies forextracting juice from Seabuckthorn

and converting the same into a ready toserve health drink (beverage), sauce,

jam as well as squash. The technology has

already been transferred and the

products are commercially available

under the name Leh Berry. The juice

can be preserved by high temperatureand short time (HTST) thermal

processing at 80-90oC for a few seconds.

This is a preferred method

because it is delicate, loses flavour and

develops off flavours if heated beyondthese conditions and vitamin C is

destroyed. The retention of vitamin C is

enhanced by HTSTconditions.Seabuckthom leaves are nutritive

fodder for the cattle and sheep/goats, as

they are a rich source of proteins(18-22%), fat (4-5%) and othermicronutrients. The flavonoid content of

leaves ranges from 310-2100 mg/l00g of


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Table 4: Amino acid content of Seabuckthorn fruit

Amino acid mg/lOOgAmino acidmg/lOOg

Aspartic acid

426.6Glutamine19.4

Proline

45.2Isoleucine17.4

Threonine

36.8Glycine16.7"itSerine

28.1Histidine13.7

Lysine

27.2Tyrosine13.4

Valine

21.8Arginine11.3~Alanine21.2Cysteine3.3

I Phenylalanine

20.0Methionine2.3

(Zhong et at, 1989).

~,." ,.:"C., ,_' ••..... _____

air dried leaves. Numerous products aremade from the leaves such as leaf extract

(Salenko et ai, 1986) tea, tea powder and

animal feed. Apart from this, 18 tonnes

of fuelwood are produced from a hectareof forest.

Conclusion

Seabuckthorn capable of growing

in harsh climate of high altitudes/ cold

deserts and poor soil with almost no care

has been found to possess unparallel

combination of useful plant components.

Besides checking soil erosion, fixing

.••.Seabuckthorn fruiting branch

atmospheric nitrogen and improving

soil fertility. Its leaves are an excellentsource of animal feed and tea beverage.Fruits are the store-house of vitamins,

flavonoids, minerals, proteins, fats etc.Some of them are excellent antioxidants

and free radical scavengers. The fruits of

this plant have been used in preparationof certain wonder drugs and drinks in

Russia, China, Canada and European

countries. The properties of productslisted in the text make it a "WONDERPLANT".It has also been referred to as

Sanjivini plant.

In Himalayan belts this plant isabundantly growing wild.Not much attention has

been paid to this plant

except for creation ofawareness bythe scientistsof Defence Research and

Development Organization (DRDO), India

under the pioneer

leadership of Dr. Brahma

Singh. Foresters,horticulturists, food

technologists, pharma

cologists, pharmacists,

etc. of the country should join hands to

make best use of this gift of God to

overcome/avoid several health problemsboth in man and animal beside im

proving economic conditions in the tribal

belt of Indian Himalayas. Seabuckthorn

is a plant that gives adequate benefit to

the rural people within the shortest time.

DRDO is taking positive steps in thisdirection for the welfare of Jawans

posted at high altitudes with the help

of tribal Kissans and industry. The

multiple benefits from Seabuckthorn

plants are attractive as its cropping canbe done with minimum cost and highreturn in remote area.

REFERENCES

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4 Beveridge,T.,T.S.C.Li,B.O.OomahandA. Smith, Seabuckthorn products :manufacturer and compositions, JAgric Food Chern, 1999, 47(9),3480-3488.



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Documents

SOURCE: · ** Emeritus Scientist, Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences, Delhi, formerly Director, Field Research Laboratory, Leh, Ladakh. Natural Product Radiance, July-August