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Email: profferfonseca@gmail.com eISSN: 2550-2166 / © 2017 The Authors. Published by Rynnye Lyan Resources
Food Research 1 (6) : 221 - 224 (December 2017)
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Goji Berry (Lycium Barbarum) in the treatment of diabetes mellitus: a
systematic review
1Silva, C.S., 1Alves, B.C.A., 2Azzalis, L.A., 2Junqueira, V.B.C., 3Fonseca, R., 1Fonseca,
A.L.A. and 1,2*Fonseca, F.L.A.
1Laboratório de Análises Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina do ABC, Av. Príncipe de Gales, 821, CEP
09060-650,Santo André, SP, Brasil
2Instituto de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Rua Prof. Artur Riedel, 275,
CEP 09972-270, Diadema, SP, Brasil
3Serviço de Pediatria do Hospital Sírio Libanês, Rua Dona Adma Jafet, 91, CEP 01308-050, São Paulo,
SP, Brasil
Article history:
Received: 14 June 2017
Received in revised form:
18 July 2017
Accepted: 19 July 2017
Available Online: 19 July
2017
Keywords:
Diabetes Mellitus,
Goji Berry (Lycium
barbarum),
Systematic review
DOI:
http://doi.org/10.26656/
fr.2017.6.102
Abstract
Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease characterized by disorders in the metabolism
of carbohydrates, lipids, lipoproteins and increased oxidative stress. New therapeutic
alternatives have been studied for the treatment of DM and due to their antioxidant
content, the Goji Berry is being widely used as a functional food. We performed a
systematic review on the use of Goji Berry (Lycium barbarum) for the DM treatment. A
systematic review was conducted through the PUBMED and LILACS databases being
used the terms "Goji Berry and Diabetes", "Lycium Barbarum and Diabetes", "Goji Berry
and Diabetes and Treatment" and "Lycium Barbarum and Diabetes and Treatment".
Results showed Goji Berry (Lycium barbarum) has the potential to be effective in the
treatment DM. Goji Berry would be an excellent alternative to already currently available
drugs and contain no adverse effects. So, it is extremely important that more research on
the subject to support its importance.
1. Introduction
Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease
characterized by disorders in the metabolism of
carbohydrates, lipids, lipoproteins, and increased
oxidative stress. It is classified as diabetes mellitus type I
(DMI), when there is a destruction of pancreatic beta
cells and the patient becomes insulin dependent, as there
is a deficiency in insulin secretion, and diabetes mellitus
type II (DMII) characterized by problems in secretion
and action of insulin pump, with the latter mainly
associated with lifestyle and morbidities such as obesity,
dyslipidemia and hypertension (Luo et al., 2004; Singh
et al., 2013; Hadi et al., 2015; SBD, 2015).
It is predicted that by 2035 this condition affects
around 471 million people, due to growth and aging of
the population, concomitant poor diet, and sedentary
lifestyle. Besides the physical and psychological damage
to those facing this disease, DM is also the cause of the
budget increase in the Unified Health System (SUS),
since Brazil had an average expenditure of $ 3.9 billion
to treat it (Wild et al., 2004; SBD, 2015).
Eating habits for patients with DM are essential for
improvement in the individuals’ life quality and
preventing the disease future complications and its
associated morbidity. Drug treatment is inevitable,
although in many cases bring many adverse effects like
weight gain, hypoglycemia, gastrointestinal symptoms
among others (Singh et al., 2013; George and Joseph,
2014; SBD, 2015).
New therapeutic alternatives are being studied for
the treatment DM. As a cheaper alternative with fewer
adverse effects to these carriers, the Goji Berry (Lycium
Barbarum, from Solanaceae family) is being widely used
as a functional food, mainly for their antioxidant action
due to a high content of vitamin C. Experiments have
shown its effectiveness in aging, increased metabolism,
immune system, liver function and glycemic control.
However, their benefits are attributed to the bioactive
222 Silva et al. / Food Research 1 (6) (2017) 221 - 224
eISSN: 2550-2166 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Rynnye Lyan Resources
component polysaccharide-protein complex 4 (LBP4),
which is composed of six monosaccharides (galactose,
glucose, rhmnose, arabinose, mannoseandxylose)
(Amagase and Nance, 2008; Ming et al., 2009; Amagase
et al., 2009; Lu and Zhao, 2010; Carnés et al., 2013).
The objective of this study was to perform a
systematic review on the use of Goji Berry (Lycium
barbarum) for the diabetes mellitus (DM) treatment.
2. Methodology
A systematic review was conducted through the
PUBMED and LILACS databases being used the terms
"Goji Berry and Diabetes", "Lycium Barbarum and
Diabetes", "Goji Berry and Diabetes and Treatment" and
"Lycium Barbarum and Diabetes and Treatment" from
January 2006 until July 2016. Because of the limited
number of available scientific articles that fulfill the
inclusion criteria a meta-analysis was not feasible for the
preparation of this study.
The terms that have been used to the inclusion: (I)
Such as available articles online (II) Articles in English
(III) Original work (IV) Studies in humans or
experimental. Exclusion criteria also included: (I)
Review work (II) Items that were not in English (III)
Treatment with other medicinal herbs associated with the
Goji Berry (Lycium Barbarum), IV) Articles > 10 years
of publication. After the selection of potential all articles
were read in full and tabulated containing article
(author's name and year of publication), the journal in
which it was published, population, study time and main
results.
3. Results
At first, a total of 35 articles about the subject was
found. After analyzing the titles and performing an
advanced research, 21 articles were considered, but when
read in its total by applying the inclusion and exclusion
criteria (Figure 1), only six articles fulfilled the criteria
previously established in this study (Table 1).
4. Discussion
Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic disease characterized
by disorders in the metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids,
lipoproteins, and increased oxidative stress and eating
habits for patients with DM are essential for
improvement in the individuals’ life quality and
preventing the disease future complications and its
associated morbidity. Although drug treatment is
inevitable, an alternative with fewer adverse effects to
these drugs is the Goji Berry (Lycium Barbarum). The
bioactive component LBP-4 has been the target of
several studies for its anti-hypoglycemic role and
because of its antioxidants role. Zhao et al. (2014)
conducted a study to analyze insulin resistance through
translocation and activation of GLUT4. This study
suggests that LBP-4 had a moderate glucose action in
OLETF rats and may improve glucose intolerance,
thereby favoring insulin resistance, having a greater
increase in the translocation of GLUT4 by LBP-4 than
for insulin, plus a GLUT4 exposure increment in
adipocytes by LPB-4, raising the hypothesis that insulin
resistance progress is due to these two factors (Zhao et
al., 2014).
The efficacy of Goji berries for DMII patients was
shown by Cai et al. (2015). In this study, Goji berry was
administered for 3 months twice daily in capsules of 300
mg with LBP-4 to diabetic type II patients. According to
the authors, improvements in post prandial serum
glucose levels and the increase of HDL in these subjects,
as well as a decrease level of TNF-α, were observed.
These results were more successful in patients who did
not use anti hypoglycemic drugs.
After using Goji berry in diabetic nephropathy, Zhao
et al. (2009) observed that there was a decrease in
proteinuria and a significant improvement in other renal
markers, thus decreasing renal injury in rats.
Another positive finding regarding the use of Goji
berry was found by Jing et al. (2009). According to the
authors, the use of LBP-4 in diabetic rats showed a
decrease in total cholesterol and triglycerides levels. Li
(2007) showed in his research that LBP restored the
levels of lipid peroxidation, thereby reducing blood
glucose rates, which may be associated with the use of
LBP for improving lipid disorders in diabetic rats
addition to delaying the onset of diabetes.
In a new study using diabetic rabbits induced by
Alloxan, Zhao et al. (2016) showed that the
recommended dosage for the beneficial effect of LBP is
10 mg / kg, different from the amounts in studies
previously reported. The effect of LBP was compared in
five groups of rabbits: group I, non-diabetic group; group
II, diabetic nephropathy control (DN) treated with
placebo; group III, held the exclusive use of LBP in
diabetic rabbits (DM) with the objective to prevent;
group IV, using the Telmisartan drug for improvement of
DN and the group V, using the LBP (10 mg / kg in 3 ml)
as a treatment in DN. At the end of the experiment the
LBP treatment group (V), when compared to the DN
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Silva et al. / Food Research 1 (6) (2017) 221 - 224 223
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group (II), showed an improvement in fasting glucose
tolerance; group prevention (III), when compared to
treatment group with LBP (V), showed better results, and
its use was more feasible for prevention of kidney issues
caused by diabetes.
By analyzing the articles described in this study, we
can see that various methodologies were used to prove
the utility of Goji berry. Thus, it is difficult to
standardize a single method, which would be beneficial
to achieve more reliable results. Research has
demonstrated that the Goji berry (Lycium barbarum) has
the potential to be effective in the treatment DM, in
addition to its protective effect on renal disease patients
and their high antioxidant effect. Therefore it is
extremely important more research on the subject to
support its importance, as this would be an excellent
alternative to already currently available drugs.
Conflict of Interest
No competing financial interests exist.
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Figure 1. Selection Process articles eligible for the study.
Table 1. General characteristics of the articles included in the study.
Article Journal Population Study Time Main results
Zhao et al.
(2014)
Food and
Function 18 male OLETF rats 04 weeks Showed an improvement of insulin resistance
through the translocation of GLUT4.
Cai et al.
(2015)
Medical
Chemistry 67 patients DM II
03
consecutives
months
There was an increase of HDL and the most
effective hypoglycemic effect was who did not
use drugs.
Zhao et al.
(2009)
Journal of
Physiology and
Pharmacology
32male Wistar rats
(streptozotocin-
induced diabetes
STZ)
08 weeks
LPB-4 possesses protective properties in
patients with diabetic nephropathy.
Jing et al.
(2009)
African Journal
of Traditional,
Complementary
and Alternative
Medicines
40 male rats
(Diabetes induced by
Alloxan)
28 days
The use of 40 mg was more effective in rats
than the dose of 20 mg, demonstrating Goji
berry having potential for the treatment of
diabetes, besides not being shown hepatotoxic
effect.
Li (2007)
International
Journal of
Biological
Macromolecular
es
50 Wistar rats
(streptozotocin-
induced diabetes
STZ)
30 days
It is suggested that LBP can be used as anti-
hypoglycemic agent in addition to its
protective effect on the kidneys and liver,
because of its antioxidants.
Zhao et al.
(2016) Life Sciences
25 Japonese male
rabbits (Diabetes
induced by Alloxan)
12 weeks
Using the LBP an improvement in renal
function and inflammation in diabetic rabbits,
but the effect was more effective in preventing
rather than the treatment of this pathology.
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