Current Research Activities
Colin McLoughlin
(Canada Seabuckthorn Enterprises Limited, RR2 Site 33 Comp 24 Peachland, BC VOH 1X0)
Overview
In co-operation with Agriculture Canada, research into evaluating optimum area plantation
management will be completed with the 1992 plantings to 1999 harvesting.
Cultivars (seed, cuttings etc.) have been evaluated on the known (nine) species' morphological,
phenological and production characteristics. For example, production characteristics used were the
yield, ability for easy harvest, organoleptic test of fruit, phytochemical analysis, and disease
resistance.
Discarded in concept was large fruit, on the basis of thin skin (relevance to mechanical
harvesting), large fruit tend to have only greater moisture content, hence dilution (weight to weight) to
constituents ratio. Another characteristic is in growth configuration: some species grow into tree form,
which is excellent for shelter belt or land reclamation, but not for plantation production economics.
It was also confirmed that sex determination might be accomplished via budding configuration of
4-year-old shrubs. The male bud has 4-6 scales whereas the female has only 2 scales. It has been
determined in Canada, for the present time, that two cultivars are recognized for commercial
plantation production, hand or mechanical harvesting: H. rhamnoides cv Indian-Summer, a cultivar
introduced circa 1938 from the Altai mountain region of Russia and H. rhamnoides ssp. sinensis,
introduced from China.
Recent acceptance of seabuckthorn products to the FDA-US regulations has been accomplished.
Exacting constituent standards and good management practices (GMP) to ensure quality and efficacy
will be supervised and controlled by the industry itself and affirmed by government regulators.
Current Research and Development Activities
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Controlled crosses in germplasm nursery
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Establishment of cultivar evaluation trials from other imports
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Systematic pruning controls for mass selective cutting of superior fruit bearing phenotypes
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Update and publishing of a new production and grower manual
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Development of a mechanical harvester
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Expansion and support to the development of seabuckthorn globally via product lines and
strategic alliances.
A Global Perspective
Evidential geological history determines that seabuckthorn originated during the tertiary, miocene-
oligocene epoch, some 25 to 40 million years ago. Concentrated by highest genus variation in Asia,
adjacent to the Himalayas, there has been anecdotal human usage with a history of 3-4 thousand
years. Scientific investigation began in Russia less than 70 years ago. Globally, products have been
in the marketplace less than 10 years. The year 1992 saw the first English translation of a paper
published in North America, indicating the value contained in this botanical resource.
It has become increasingly imperative at the present stage of growth of our seabuckthorn industry
that we members of the global seabuckthorn community assume the responsibility to ensure that
every effort is made to preserve this resource unadulterated, to the consumer, without hype, and/or
dishonourable marketing techniques.
