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''Luo han guo'' is harvested in the form of a round, green fruit, which becomes brown on drying. It is rarely used in its fresh form, as it is hard to store when fresh.
Thus, the fruits are usually dried before further use and are sold in this fashion in Chinese herbal shops. The fruits are dried slowly in ovens, preserving them and removing most of the unwanted aromas. However, this technique also leads to the formation of several bitter and
In this process, the peel and seeds are removed, and the pulped fruit is made into a fruit concentrate or puree. Additional juice may be extracted from the remaining pulp with hot water. The juice is
''Siraitia grosvenorii'', also known as monkfruit, ''luo han guo'' (), or Swingle fruit, is a
herbaceous
Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials.
Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous"
The fourth edition of ...
perennial
In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...
vine
A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...
of the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae
The Cucurbitaceae (), also called cucurbits or the gourd family, are a plant family (biology), family consisting of about 965 species in 101 genera.
. It is native to southern China
Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions that display certain differences in terms of their geography, demographics, economy, and culture.
Extent
The Qinling–Daba Mountains serve as the transition zone between ...
. The plant is cultivated for its fruit extract
An extract (essence) is a substance made by extracting a part of a raw material, often by using a solvent such as ethanol, oil or water. Extracts may be sold as tinctures or absolutes or dried and powdered.
The aromatic principles of ma ...
containing mogroside
A mogroside is a triterpene glycoside of cucurbitane derivatives found in certain plants, such as the fruit of the gourd vine '' Siraitia grosvenorii'' (known as monkfruit or ''luohan guo'').Subhuti Dharmananda (January 2004)"Luo han guo - Sweet ...
s. Mogroside extract has been used as a low-calorie
The calorie is a unit of energy that originated from the caloric theory of heat. The large calorie, food calorie, dietary calorie, kilocalorie, or kilogram calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter o ...
sweetener
A sweetener is a substance added to food or drink to impart the flavor of sweetness, either because it contains a type of sugar, or because it contains a sweet-tasting sugar substitute. Various natural non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) and artificial s ...
for drinks and in traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
. One mogroside, mogroside V, creates a sweetness
Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...
sensation 250 times stronger than sucrose
Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula .
For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...
.
The scientific species name honors Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor
Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor ( ; October 28, 1875 – February 4, 1966) was an American magazine editor who was the first full-time editor of the ''National Geographic'' magazine from 1899 to 1954, and is credited with having consolidated the nascent ...
, who, as president of the National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...
, helped to fund an expedition in the 1930s to find the living plant in China where it was already being cultivated.
Etymology and regional names
Monkfruit was first mentioned in the records of 13th-century Chinese monks inGuangxi
Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
in the region of Guilin
Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''), postal map romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as Kweilin, is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the we ...
. The difficulty of cultivation meant the fruit did not become part of the Chinese herbal tradition which depended on more readily available products.
() is a shortened form of (), which is an old transliteration of the Indian Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
word ''arhat
In Buddhism, an ''Arhat'' () or ''Arahant'' (, 𑀅𑀭𑀳𑀦𑁆𑀢𑁆) is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved ''Nirvana (Buddhism), Nirvana'' and has been liberated from the Rebirth (Buddhism ...
'' (). In early Buddhist traditions, a monk who becomes enlightened is called an ''arhat'' who attains the "fruition of arhatship" (Sanskrit: ). This was rendered in Chinese as (, literally ) which later became the Chinese and Western commercial designation for this type of sweet fruit.
It may also be called ''la han qua'' (from Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
, which also means ), or ''longevity fruit'' (also used for other fruits).Ling Yeouruenn, ''A New Compendium of Materia Medica'', 1995 Science Press, Beijing
History and distribution
The first report in England on the herb was found in an unpublished manuscript written in 1938 by G. Weidman Groff and Hoh Hin Cheung. The report stated the fruits were often used as the main ingredients of "cooling drinks" as remedies for hot weather, fever, or other dysfunctions traditionally associated with warmth or heat (e.g.,inflammation
Inflammation (from ) is part of the biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. The five cardinal signs are heat, pain, redness, swelling, and loss of function (Latin ''calor'', '' ...
).
The fruit was taken to the United States in the early 20th century. Groff mentioned that, during a visit to the U.S. Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production ...
in 1917, the botanist Frederick Coville showed him a ''luo han guo'' fruit bought in a Chinese shop in Washington, DC. Seeds of the fruit, which had been bought in a Chinese shop in San Francisco, were entered into the botanic description of the species in 1941.
The first research into the sweet component of ''luo han guo'' is attributed to C. H. Lee, who wrote an English report on it in 1975, and also to Tsunematsu Takemoto, who worked on it the early 1980s in Japan (later Takemoto decided to concentrate on the similar sweet plant, ''jiaogulan
''Gynostemma pentaphyllum'', also called jiaogulan (), is a dioecious, herbaceous climbing vine of the family Cucurbitaceae (cucumber or gourd family) widely distributed in South and East Asia as well as New Guinea.
Jiaogulan is used to make ...
'').
The development of ''luo han guo'' products in China has continued ever since, focusing in particular on the development of concentrated extracts.
Description
The vine attains a length of , climbing over other plants by means oftendril
In botany, a tendril is a specialized Plant stem, stem, leaf or Petiole (botany), petiole with a thread-like shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as ''Cuscuta''. There ar ...
s which twine around anything they touch. The narrow, heart-shaped leaves
A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...
are long. The fruit is round or oblong, in diameter, smooth and yellow-brown in color. The inside of the fruit contains an edible pulp
Pulp may refer to:
* Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit
* Pulp (band), an English rock band
Engineering
* Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper
* Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture
...
. When dried, it forms a thin, light brown, brittle shell about 1 mm in thickness. The seeds are pale yellow and broadly ovate.
The interior fruit is eaten fresh, and the rind is used to make tea.
The monkfruit is notable for its sweetness, which can be concentrated from its juice. The fruit contains 25–38% of various carbohydrates, mainly fructose
Fructose (), or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and gal ...
and glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...
. The sweetness of the fruit is increased by the mogrosides, a group of triterpene glycosides (saponins). The five different mogrosides are numbered from I to V; the main component is mogroside V, which is also known as esgoside.
Mogroside biosynthesis
One analysis of 200 candidategene
In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
s of ''Siraitia grosvenorii'' revealed five enzyme
An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...
families involved in the synthesis of mogroside
A mogroside is a triterpene glycoside of cucurbitane derivatives found in certain plants, such as the fruit of the gourd vine '' Siraitia grosvenorii'' (known as monkfruit or ''luohan guo'').Subhuti Dharmananda (January 2004)"Luo han guo - Sweet ...
V: squalene epoxidase
Squalene monooxygenase (also called squalene epoxidase) is a eukaryotic enzyme that uses NADPH and diatomic oxygen to oxidize squalene to 2,3-oxidosqualene (squalene epoxide). Squalene epoxidase catalyzes the first oxygenation step in sterol bi ...
s, triterpenoid
Triterpenes are a class of terpenes composed of six isoprene units with the molecular formula C30H48; they may also be thought of as consisting of three terpene units. Animals, plants and fungi all produce triterpenes, including squalene, the pre ...
synthase
In biochemistry, a synthase is an enzyme that catalyses a synthesis process.
Note that, originally, biochemical nomenclature distinguished synthetases and synthases. Under the original definition, synthases do not use energy from nucleoside trip ...
s, epoxide hydrolase
Epoxide hydrolases (EHs), also known as epoxide hydratases, are enzymes that metabolize compounds that contain an epoxide residue; they convert this residue to two hydroxyl residues through an epoxide hydrolysis reaction to form diol products. ...
s, cytochrome P450
Cytochromes P450 (P450s or CYPs) are a Protein superfamily, superfamily of enzymes containing heme as a cofactor (biochemistry), cofactor that mostly, but not exclusively, function as monooxygenases. However, they are not omnipresent; for examp ...
s, and UDP-glucosyltransferase
Glucosyltransferases are a type of glycosyltransferase that enable the transfer of glucose.
Examples include:
* glycogen synthase
* glycogen phosphorylase
Glycogen phosphorylase is one of the phosphorylase enzymes (). Glycogen phosphorylase c ...
s. The metabolic pathway for mogroside biosynthesis involves an initial stage of fruit development when squalene is metabolized to di-glucosylated, tetra-hydroxycucurbitadienols, then during fruit maturation, branched glucosyl
In organic chemistry, a glycosyl group is a univalent free radical or substituent structure obtained by removing the hydroxyl () group from the hemiacetal () group found in the cyclic form of a monosaccharide and, by extension, of a lower ol ...
groups are added and catalyzed, leading to the sweet M4, M5, and M6 mogrosides.
Cultivation
Germination of seeds is slow and may take several months. It is grown primarily in the far southern Chinese province ofGuangxi
Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
(mostly in the mountains near Guilin
Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''), postal map romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as Kweilin, is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the we ...
), as well as in Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
, Guizhou, Hunan
Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...
, and Jiangxi
; Gan: )
, translit_lang1_type2 =
, translit_lang1_info2 =
, translit_lang1_type3 =
, translit_lang1_info3 =
, image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg
, mapsize = 275px
, map_caption = Location ...
. These mountains lend the plants shade and often are surrounded by mists which protect the plants from the sun. Nonetheless, the climate in this southern province is warm. The plant is rarely found in the wild, so it has been cultivated for hundreds of years.
Records as early as 1813 mention the cultivation of this plant in the Guangxi province. Most of the plantations are located in Yongfu County
Yongfu County () is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Guilin, Guangxi, China, located to the southwest of downtown Guilin. The county is mostly rural and hilly, marked by the same dramatic karst topography for whi ...
and Lingui County
Lingui District () is the county seat and District (China), district administered by Guilin, Guangxi, China, and located midway between Guilin and Yangshuo. The district is mostly rural and hilly, marked by the same dramatic karst topography for w ...
.
Longjiang Town in Yongfu County has acquired the name "home of the Chinese ''luo han guo'' fruit"; a number of companies specialised in making ''luo han guo'' extracts and finished products have been set up in the area. The Yongfu Pharmaceutical Factory is the oldest of these.
Traditional processing
''Luo han guo'' is harvested in the form of a round, green fruit, which becomes brown on drying. It is rarely used in its fresh form, as it is hard to store when fresh.
Thus, the fruits are usually dried before further use and are sold in this fashion in Chinese herbal shops. The fruits are dried slowly in ovens, preserving them and removing most of the unwanted aromas. However, this technique also leads to the formation of several bitter and astringent
An astringent (sometimes called adstringent) is a chemical that shrinks or constricts body tissues. The word derives from the Latin '' adstringere'', which means "to bind fast". Astringency, the dry, puckering or numbing mouthfeel caused by t ...
flavors. This limits the use of the dried fruits and extracts to the preparation of diluted tea, soup, and as a sweetener for products that would usually have sugar or honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...
added to them.
Commercial manufacturing
The process for the manufacture of a useful sweetener from ''luo han guo'' was patented in 1995 byProcter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...
. The patent states that ''luo han guo'' has many interfering flavors, which render it useless for general applications, and describes a process to remove them. The offending compounds are sulfur
Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...
-containing volatile substances such as hydrogen disulfide
Hydrogen disulfide is the inorganic compound with the formula . This hydrogen chalcogenide is a pale yellow volatile liquid with a camphor-like odor. It decomposes readily to hydrogen sulfide () and elemental sulfur.
Structure
The connection of ...
, methional
Methional is an organic compound with the formula CH3SCH2CH2CHO. It is a colorless liquid that is a degradation product of methionine. It is a notable flavor in potato-based snacks, namely potato chips, one of the most popular foods containing met ...
, methionol, dimethylsulfide
Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) or methylthiomethane is an organosulfur compound with the formula . It is the simplest thioether and has a characteristic disagreeable odor. It is a flammable liquid that boils at . It is a component of the smell produced ...
, and methylmercaptan
Methanethiol (also known as methyl mercaptan) is an organosulfur compound with the chemical formula . It is a colorless gas with a distinctive putrid smell. In small amounts, it is pervasive in nature and found in certain foods, such as some n ...
, which are formed from amino acids that contain sulfur
Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...
, such as methionine
Methionine (symbol Met or M) () is an essential amino acid in humans.
As the precursor of other non-essential amino acids such as cysteine and taurine, versatile compounds such as SAM-e, and the important antioxidant glutathione, methionine play ...
, S-methylmethionine
''S''-Methylmethionine (SMM) is a derivative of methionine with the chemical formula (Methyl, CH3)2S+CH2CH2CH(NH3+)CO2−. This cation is a naturally-occurring intermediate in many biosynthetic pathways owing to the sulfonium functional group. It ...
, cystine
Cystine is the oxidized derivative of the amino acid cysteine and has the formula (SCH2CH(NH2)CO2H)2. It is a white solid that is poorly soluble in water. As a residue in proteins, cystine serves two functions: a site of redox reactions and a mec ...
, and cysteine
Cysteine (; symbol Cys or C) is a semiessential proteinogenic amino acid with the chemical formula, formula . The thiol side chain in cysteine enables the formation of Disulfide, disulfide bonds, and often participates in enzymatic reactions as ...
.
Sweetening agent
The sweet taste of the fruit comes mainly frommogroside
A mogroside is a triterpene glycoside of cucurbitane derivatives found in certain plants, such as the fruit of the gourd vine '' Siraitia grosvenorii'' (known as monkfruit or ''luohan guo'').Subhuti Dharmananda (January 2004)"Luo han guo - Sweet ...
s, a group of triterpene
Triterpenes are a class of terpenes composed of six isoprene units with the molecular formula C30H48; they may also be thought of as consisting of three terpene units. Animals, plants and fungi all produce triterpenes, including squalene, the pre ...
glycosides
In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. ...
that make up about 1% of the flesh of the fresh fruit. Through solvent extraction
A solvent (from the Latin language, Latin ''wikt:solvo#Latin, solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a Solution (chemistry), solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas ...
, a powder containing 80% mogrosides can be obtained, the main one being mogroside-5 (esgoside). Other similar agents in the fruit are siamenoside
Siamenoside is a cucurbitane, a natural sweetener from the fruit of ''Siraitia grosvenorii'' combined with neomogroside. The mixture is about 300 times sweeter than sucrose. It is used as a natural sweetener in China.neomogroside
Neomogroside is a cucurbitane glycoside isolated from the fruit of ''Siraitia grosvenorii''.
See also
* Mogroside
A mogroside is a triterpene glycoside of cucurbitane derivatives found in certain plants, such as the fruit of the gourd vine '' ...
.
In this process, the peel and seeds are removed, and the pulped fruit is made into a fruit concentrate or puree. Additional juice may be extracted from the remaining pulp with hot water. The juice is homogenized
Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts relating to the uniformity of a substance, process or image. A homogeneous feature is uniform in composition or character (i.e., color, shape, size, weight, height, distribution, texture, language, inc ...
, acidified slightly to prevent gel
A gel is a semi-solid that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady state, although the liquid phase may still d ...
ling and improve the flavor, then treated with pectinase
Pectinases are a group of enzymes that breaks down pectin, a polysaccharide found in plant cell walls, through hydrolysis, transelimination and deesterification reactions. Commonly referred to as pectic enzymes, they include pectolyase, pectozym ...
or other enzyme
An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...
s to break down the pectin
Pectin ( ': "congealed" and "curdled") is a heteropolysaccharide, a structural polymer contained in the primary lamella, in the middle lamella, and in the cell walls of terrestrial plants. The principal chemical component of pectin is galact ...
. Most of the off-flavor agents are then removed with ion-exchange resin
An ion-exchange resin or ion-exchange polymer is a resin or polymer that acts as a medium for ion exchange, that is also known as an ionex. It is an insoluble matrix (or support structure) normally in the form of small (0.25–1.43 mm radiu ...
s, such as sulfonated
In organic chemistry, aromatic sulfonation is a reaction in which a hydrogen atom on an arene is replaced by a sulfonic acid () group. Together with nitration and chlorination, aromatic sulfonation is a widely used electrophilic aromatic substi ...
polystyrene-divinylbenzene copolymer or polyacrylic acid
Poly(acrylic acid) (PAA; trade name Carbomer) is a polymer with the formula (CH2−CHCO2H)''n''. It is a derivative of acrylic acid (CH2=CHCO2H). In addition to the homopolymers, a variety of copolymers and crosslinked polymers, and partially ...
. Alternatively, the off-flavors can be adsorbed
Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms, ions or molecules from a gas, liquid or dissolved solid to a surface. This process creates a film of the ''adsorbate'' on the surface of the ''adsorbent''. This process differs from absorption, in which a f ...
by agents like charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...
or bentonite
Bentonite ( ) is an Absorption (chemistry), absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite (a type of smectite) which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite. Na-montmorillonite has a considerably greater swelli ...
, which are removed by filtration; or precipitate
In an aqueous solution, precipitation is the "sedimentation of a solid material (a precipitate) from a liquid solution". The solid formed is called the precipitate. In case of an inorganic chemical reaction leading to precipitation, the chemic ...
d with gelatin
Gelatin or gelatine () is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also be referred to as hydrolyzed collagen, coll ...
or other gelling agents. Most of the remaining sulfurous volatiles are then removed by low-pressure
Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and eve ...
evaporation
Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the Interface (chemistry), surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. A high concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evapora ...
. The juice is then pasteurized
In food processing, pasteurization ( also pasteurisation) is a process of food preservation in which packaged foods (e.g., milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than , to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life ...
to inactivate remaining natural enzymes and kill microorganisms
A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen microbial life was suspected from antiquity, with an early attestation in ...
. The process is claimed to preserve a substantial fraction of the mogrosides present in the fruit, with the resulting sweetness at a level about 250 times stronger than sucrose.
Safety
At least onegenerally recognized as safe
Generally recognized as safe (GRAS) is a United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designation that a chemical or substance added to food is considered safe by experts under the conditions of its intended use. An ingredient with a GRAS d ...
(GRAS) notice has been received by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
. The FDA granted GRAS certification to ''Siraitia grosvenorii'' extracts/processed products in 2011.
In Europe, it is classified as an unapproved novel food
A novel food is a type of food that does not have a significant history of consumption or is produced by a method that has not previously been used for food.
Designer food
Designer food is a type of novel food that has not existed on any regional ...
(not used in the food system
The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition, food, health, community development, and agriculture. A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growi ...
before May 1997) which means that it may be marketed as a food or food ingredient only after a safety assessment and approval by the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
. In 2019, the EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Flavourings (FAF) was asked by the European Commission to provide its scientific opinion on the safety of monkfruit extract as a food additive. The panel concluded that the current body of research was insufficient. As of 2023, ''Siraitia grosvenorii'' was not listed among approved Novel Foods in the EU.
Traditional uses
The plant is most prized for its sweet fruits as asweetener
A sweetener is a substance added to food or drink to impart the flavor of sweetness, either because it contains a type of sugar, or because it contains a sweet-tasting sugar substitute. Various natural non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) and artificial s ...
. In traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medicine, alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. A large share of its claims are pseudoscientific, with the majority of treatments having no robust evidence ...
, it is used for cough and sore throat. The fruits are generally sold in dried form, and used in herbal tea
Herbal teas, technically known as herbal infusions, and less commonly called tisanes (UK and US , US also ), are beverages made from the infusion or decoction of herbs, spices, or other plant material in hot water. Often herb tea, or the plai ...
or soup.
References
External links
* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1544966 Cucurbitoideae Fruits originating in Asia Flora of China Crops originating from China Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine Dietary supplements Sugar substitutes Tropical fruit