ETERA/AL YO(ITH - Sibu Beauty

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ETERA/AL YO(ITH
In the far reaches of the Indian Himalayas, where the Dalai Lama spends his summers and
where the locals appear to be ageless, a tiny orange berry has been prized for centuries-as food
as elixir, as medicine. Now the age-defying properties of sea buckthorn are being celebrated
around the world, making this unassuming plant the latest in a long line of so-called superfoods.
Could this newest mirade fiuit be the one that finally turns back the proverbial dock?
gVLAWRENCE
ea I TOWN&COUNTRY
OSBORNE
Photographs bv CHRISTOPHER WISE

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THE GIVING TREE
Workers pick
sea buckthorn berries
during harvest Se?Sorr
in Ladakh.
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long the roads that border the Indus River near the
Dalai Lama's summer residence, in Leh, India, the traveler will notice a low
shrub growing in vast quantities. It grows all over the edges of these Himalayan
deserts. The thorns are tightly clustered, and inside them you can see
tiny bright orange berries rendered by nature, it would seem, to be virtually
inaccessible to mammals, though the leaves are a delicacy for the larvae of
the emperor moth. This ubiquitous plant is known as sastalulu in Ladakhi,
the language of this northerly part of Kashmir state, on the border with
Tibet. Its botanical name is Htppop/tae r/tamnoides,which means "shining
horses" in Greek. In English it is sea buckthorn.
The ancient Greeks fed it to their horses and noticed that their animals'
hides became glossy and lustrous. In Himalayan India it has been planted
mainly to restrain soil erosion, though the local
Tibetan medicine men, known as amc/cis, have
been using it for centuries as what Americans today
would call a "superfood." They value its seed
oil as a cure for inflammation, skin defects, lung
disorders, and a host of other ailments, and it has
always been reputed to be (as the Greeks noticed)
a wondrous nutrient for hair and skin. The bitter,
acidic little berries are used as a general health
tonic and an anti-aging medicine.
Sea buckthorn is said to be a "holy fruit": the
HOLY CROSS fountain of youth in berry form. In recent years
The Stakna monastery science has verified that sea buckthorn berries do
in Leh Valley. indeed contain r9o different
nutrients, including
high concentrations of antioxidants and fatty
acids, particularly the invaluable omega-T (p"ldtoleic
acid). The impoverishedvillagers of Ladakh,
long left out of India-s economic boom, have suddenly
discovered a nutritional gold mine in their
soil-erosion plants, a berry that can be easily
transformed into shampoos, gel capsules, soaps,
body lotions, skin serurns, and miracle juices for
the world's more affluent (and rapidly agrng) societies.
Sea buckthorn tea is already popular in
India, and there are mmors of a sea buckthorn
wine. The West's relentless search for a palliative
for aging, meanwhile, may have found yet another
so-called miracle food, this time procured,
attractively, {iom the land of Shangri-La.
Like the African mango (a variant of the fruit that grows only in Cameroon
and has recently swept America as a slimming agent), sea buckthorn is
becoming a lucrative health food for the handful of organic beauty companies
that import the berries-both Weleda and Fresh have entire collections
SUPER CYCLE
Another year another newfu discovered
supefnd: the stream is seemingfu endless. Here are
rc tltat ltave earned tlte distinction.
e6 ITOWN&COUNTRY
PEAK SEASON
Prayer flags festoon
Khardung-La Pass,
at r8,38o feet.
TREKKINC ORDER
Sea buckthorn harvesters
make their rounds.
KERALA
POMECRANATE
BAOBAB
One of the original superfoods, the
The superfood of the future. Don't be
antioxidant-oacked fruit can reduce blood
surprised if baobab-an African fruit rich in iron,
pressure and cholesterol, boost iron levels and
potassium, calcium, and vitamin C (six times as
brain power, and, because of its high vitamin
much as oranges)-starts popping up soon on
C content, give skin a natural glow. beauty labels at a store near you.

THE VILLAGERS ATE A
YELLOW BERRY THAT KEPT
.HEM FROM GETTING SICK. NO
OI{E HAD DIED IN 40 YEARS.
THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD
Snowcapped mountains are the
backdrop on the meandering road out ofLeh.
COCONUT OIL
cojr BERRTES
A good-for-you saturated fat. The benefits i The Chinese have been munching on gojis for centuries
of a diet that incorporates coconut oil include
improved heart health and metabolism, a
i
:
to lengthen their lifespans. Besides an anti-aging
effect, the potent immune-boosters are also thought
better-supported immune system, and
to regulate cholesterol, protect vision, and
younger-looking skin. have a calming effect on the psyche.
based on sea buckthorn-and process them into consumer products.
Among these is Sibu Beauty, a company co-founded by a Mormon named
Bruce McMullin rnzooS.
McMullin had been on the executive board of the Salt Lake City charity
Choice Humanitarian, and his philanthropic work often took him to India.
In Calcutta one year he met an exuberant Indian herbalist, entrepreneur,
and specialist in a5,'Lrrvedic medicines named Nico Khanna, who had spent
25 years in the Himalayas exploring unusual herbal cures.
Khanna told him of the so-called holy fi:uit he had encountered in several
of the country's Himalayan states over a period of several decades. No
one knew much about sastalulu scientifically, but Khanna had heard of villages
where it was regularly consumed and where no one seemed to get sick.
McMullin was intrigued. Khanna insisted that the best sea buckthorn berries
came not from China where most of the world's crop is grown, but from
the Indian side of the Himalayas. The idea for a collaboration was born. If
Khanna could get the highest-quality berries and guarantee their shipment
to America, McMullin would guarantee American investment and market
profits. And the fretting middle-aged people of America would have their
wrinkles smoothed away.
Khanna went to Leh, the capital of India's Ladakh region, situated at
an altitude of rr,ooo feet and with a population of about 27,5oo. Leh was
once an important trade nexus between India Tibet, and China; hashish,
cashmere, and indigo were its lifeblood. It sits near the headwaters of the
Indus River. ftom which India takes its name, but its culture is almost entirely
Tibetan. Leh's steep alleys are crowded with trekking companies and
the markets and schools of exiled Tibetans, who do not forget that Leh
was founded in the roth century by a warlike Tibetan prince, Nyima Gon.
Today the Dalai Lama spends part of the year here, and his image is everywhere-dangling
from dashboards, plastered to the walls of caf6s. Leh is
also heavily militarized due to its proximity to the volatile Chinese border.
A permit is needed to venture anywhere outside the town.
Leh Palace, which looms over the town, was built in the rTth century
and modeled after the Potala in Lhasa. Great grlded prayer wheels stand at
the corner$ and strings of prayer flags loop across the streets. At night the
lanes fill with dogs and shivering cows. At dawn you hear prayers being
sung in the first-floor windows over cups of incense. At the Omasila Hotel,
where I stayed, the staff came out at first light to pray to the flower beds.
Ninety percent Buddhist, Leh is a place that seems to exist within a deliberate
quietness framed by the giant glaciers on the horizon.
Ten miles east of Leh lies the ancient citadel at Shey, around which
white cltortens (better known as Buddhist stupas, those moundlike reliquary
shrines you see in this part of the world) stand ruined in the desert.
The Tibetan past is vividly present here, and in this austere, bright highland,
sea buckthorn plants thrive effortlessly as they have for centuries,
glittering like golden rose hips along the roads. It was the perfect place to
meet Nico Khanna.
Now 69 and a Delhi millionaire, Khanna looks 15 years younger ("Sea
buckthorn every d^y, ^y dear fellow!") but he was hobbling that day because
his leg was acting up. One of his giant dogs had bowled him over and
broken his leg, and the steel plate in it seemed to have sffied. Jaunty and
elegant nevertheless, Khanna walked me to the edge of a farm to look at
great mats of mashed sea buckthorn berries drying in the sun and to show
KOMBUCHA
Beloved in health and fashion circles. the
notoriously smelly fermented tea is believed to
promote general well-being, stave off hunger,
and even cure hangovers. Many devotees have
taken to DlYng their own brews.
JANUARY zotz | 97

me his neatly parted hair. Only a few gray strands.
"l make a jolly mean
sea buckthorn shampoo. I can do the same for you. No more gray for
you-a harem of girls you will be having!"
One of the women from the collective came with us. Her name was
Tsering Yangsleet, and she explained how hard it was to strip the tiny
berries ftom those low-lying barbed branches, whose thorns were like
little daggers. Yet they managed to harvest tons of them every August
and September and ship them to America. Plump sacks of them were
piled up at the edge of the mats. The harvesters made gzooo each and
lived offthe proceeds for the rest of the year. It was excellent money by
Leh standards.
"l can work for six weeks," Yangsleet said, "and spend it
the rest of the year. Two months of work, ro months of money." It was,
for once, globalization gone right. So much so that in zoog the Dalai
Lama gave his blessing to the effort. I noticed that the bushes carpeted
the desert as far as the eye could see, the leaves pale gray and olive, the
thorns metallic in the sun. There was no need to farm them like other
crops; they grew everywhere like weeds, so effortlessly that the plant
In zoo5 foldan obtained a license from the Indian government to
regulate the sea buckthorn harvest in Leh and at the same time began
to work with Khanna. The processing plant the two of them set up together
lies off the road near Shey, under a rocky mountain range and
within view of distant glaciers.
Khanna could barely contain an epic and missionary enthusiasm.
"This
is going to be the biggest nutrition story on eafth. Sea buckthorn
will be used in ways we have never even imagined. Already my own
herbal company in India has 43 sea buckthorn products. Did you know
the Indian Army has developed a sea buckthorn supplement for its soldiers
posted here at high altitude to fight the bloody Chinese?" (Anti-
Chinese sentiment, I noticed, runs high in Ladakh, not least because of
Chinas treatment of Tibet.)
Sea buckthorn grows all over the world. It can be found in Canada
and in Finland. But nowhere else does it grow at such tremendous
heights. Khanna explained that it was the Himalayan altitude that forced
the plant to defend itself by sucking in huge amounts of nutrients. "This
The iourney Iiom berry ,o;",.. * ,0..3l,l#.*o,tt llsJ,.ttt o- u.t", are harvested, ancl then
separated, washed, and sorted. Finally they are processed tlrough a machine to obtain the thick Fanta-colored juice that will eventually be shipped
abrcad. Oppoite: A,herd ofcamels linger contenteilly in the shadows of the Himalayas north of Leh.
had, Khanna said, been overlooked as a resource. Some of the difficulty
of harvesting, he explained, is alleviated by special tools that shake the
branches and rake the berries off. He gestured rather grandly at the
piles of crushed skins, pulp, leaves, and pits laid out on the mats. The
leaves of the male plant, which are often overlooked, were now being
used to create a potent tea.
The harvesting of the berries for commercial purposes had an unlikely
beginning. I was told the story by Tadbar foldan, the assistant
commissioner for labor in Leh. |oldan was one of the first people to
understand the possibilities of sea buckthorn in the context of a remote
and impoverished economy. "We think that sea buckthorn was
'discovered'
as a nutrition aid by an NGO called the Leh Nutrition
Program back in the mid-r99os," he said. "They and the fact that it grows wild make it the best longevity product ever
discovered. The concentration of nutrients is unparalleled."
He brought me into a long shed that serves as a factory. There were
about a dozenworkers and three machines for separating, washing, and
finally juicing the berries. Out of the last machine carne a frotlry pale
orange liquid that cascaded down a metal chute and into a tub, from
which it was ladled carefirlly into a blue plastic drum that would eventu-
ran a cooperative of
ally be sent to Sibu Beauty for bottling. Each drum was marked with
the date of the harvest. The workers offered me a glass of this raw juice.
It was so bitter as to be undrinkable, but a few moments later another
glass appeared, this time diluted with water and sweetened with sugar. It
was like a tart apricot juice, pleasantly refreshing and it was essentially
the same concoction that Sibu now sells online in the United States for
women harvesters under an Englishman whom everyone called Nick. $zg.gs for a75o milliliter carton.
It was this rather mysterious Englishman who seems to have stumbled We went out into the intense sun, and I saw that allthe workers had
upon the idea of harvesting sea buckthorn berries on a larger scale. assembled to drink their daily glass of sweetened sea buckthorn juice.
Nick and these z6localwomen, they were the first."
I realized then that it was difficult to guess their [coNrNUED oN pAcE 108]
e8 l
TOWN&COUNTRY
MANGOSTEEN
This small purple fruit full of polyphenol
antioxidants has been used in Southeast Asia for
more than 400 years to slow aging and soothe
inflammation of the skin. lts benefits were noted
by a Cerman scientist in the mid-1800s.
ACAI
The little berry that could, this Brazilian-born superfruit
landed in the U.S. in the mid-aughts. The
anti-aging, antioxidant, and amino acid-rich aEai was
quickly championed by health gurus like Dr. Oz and
scooped up by beauty brands like Kiehl's.

' siii .'11:
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PROMISE YOU I CAN MAKE SKIN CREAMS THAT
WILL MAKE ANY 5o-YEAR-OLD WOMAN LOOK LIKE
A 3o-YEAR"OLD. I CAN MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD
LOOK LIKE A TEENAGER."
The brothers Kellogg revolutionized the American
-19, Bottoms up. The compound, most commonly
breakfast in 1906 with Corn Flakes, and Product
fu4#
the first100 percent fortified cereal (with a highly
|
" / rlassified name), introducedin196T, further
tr*
found
in grape skins-ergo, red wine-is considered an
arrti-aging elixir. lt has also been shown to speeri
up metabolism and lower cholesterol.
''-
-oi f*fu9:I1a'.lljrr'nut
-'-l
reputation
TheJapanese first took interest in this fresl.rwater
green algae in the 1940s (though it has existed for
billions of years). lt's described as a perfect fooci
due to its ability to regulate blood sugar and help
reveT\e signs of agirrg
IANUARY zotz | 99