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Use

Sea buckthorn is a very versatile plant and the fruits as well as the leaves can be used. Specifically, the fruits are processed and are then used in the food industry, in traditional medicine, as part of drugs or in the cosmetic industry. The leaves can be used as feed, particularly for ruminants. Because of its tolerance against strongly eroded, nutrient poor and sometime salty soils, the plant is also used for land reclamation or as shelter-belt.

Food and beverages

In general, all parts of the sea buckthorn contain several bioactive compounds that can have positive health effects for humans as well as livestock (Li, 2002; Li and Beveridge, 2003). Particularly the fruit contain high vitamin C amounts, eventually even exceeding the ones of lemons and oranges (7).

The sea buckthorn fruits are processed in the food industry to different products. Usually, the berries are first washed and then pressed, resulting in press-cake and juice. The fruit press cake can be used to gain oil, natural food colour pigments (yellow/orange) or jam while the juice is further processed and then packaged as final juice product (Bal et al. 2012). Especially in the southern part of France, sea buckthorn is commonly sold as fruit juice or as an ingredient in non-alcoholic and alcoholic mixed beverages. A typical liquor produced at the same latitudes in Italy, Tuscany, is the officinal Tuscan liquor - Spinello.

The leaves can be air dried and eventually grinded and can be used for tea. The drying and milling process do not cause considerable losses of bioactive substances and thus confer a healthy composition of the infusion (Li, 2002).

Use in traditional medicine

Sea buckthorn is widely used as medicinal plant all over the globe and particularly in Russia and North-East Asia (e.g. P.R. China, Mongolia and Tajikistan). The leaves are used as herbal medicine to alleviate cough and fever, pain, diarrhea and general gastrointestinal disorders as well as to cure dermatologic disorders. Similarly, the fruit juice and oils can be used in the treatment of liver disease, gastrointestinal disorders, chronic wounds or other dermatological disorders (Gulyev et al., 2004)(Christaki, 2012). H. rhamnoides fruits have also been used in the traditional Austrian medicine internally as tea, juice, or syrup for treatment of infections, colds, and flu.[8]

Pharmacological activities

H. rhaminoides is also used in modern medicine to cure or alleviate similar diseases or disturbances as in traditional medicine. Various pharmacological activities such as cytoprotective, anti-stress, immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective, radioprotective, anti-atherogenic, anti-tumor, anti-microbial anti-ulcerogenic and tissue regeneration have been reported (Guylev et al., 2004) [9].

Whole plant uses

The H. rhaminoides plant is particularly drought and salt tolerant and can thus be successfully used for land reclamation, against further soil erosion, as shelterbelt or in agroforestry. These characteristics are mainly due to the deep root system that the plant develops. For example, in eastern China, new agroforestry systems have been developed to reclaim land with high salinity contents and H. rhaminoides is included in the system as shelterbelt (Zhang et al., 2004).