One of the most difficult steps in making goji (lycium barbarum) available for sale, is differentiating the quality berries from the rest.

Here is one solution documented at PubMed.org… 

 Differentiation of Lycium barbarum from its related Lycium species using random amplified polymorphic DNA.

The RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) technique was applied for the first time to distinguish Lycium barbarum from other closely related species of the same genus.

In this study, eight samples were collected, including five species, two varieties and one cultivated variety. A total of fifty arbitrary primers were used in the RAPD analysis. Distinctive DNA fingerprints corresponding to different Lycium species were successfully obtained from ten primers. Similarity index (S.I.) analysis revealed that the values are higher between intraspecies than interspecies.

These results confirmed that the RAPD technique can be employed for distinguishing closely related species of Lycium.

Zhang KY, Leung HW, Yeung HW, Wong RN
PMID: 11458465 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]