Siraitia grosvenorii
Encyclopedia
Siraitia grosvenorii is an herbaceous
perennial
vine
native to southern China and Northern Thailand. The plant is best known for its fruit
, commonly called luo han guo or luo han kuo (from the Chinese luóhàn guǒ, 羅漢果, 罗汉果, sometimes printed lohoguo in Hong Kong
), la han qua (from Vietnamese
la hán quả), arhat fruit, Buddha
fruit, or monk fruit
. Botanical synonyms include Momordica grosvenorii and Thladiantha grosvenorii. The fruit is one of several that have been called longevity
fruit
. The species was named in honor of Gilbert Grosvenor.
The plant is cultivated for its fruit, used for cooling drinks and in traditional Chinese medicine
. The fruit extract is nearly 300 times sweeter
than sugar and has been used as a natural low-calorie sweetener
in China for nearly a millennium to treat diabetes and obesity
s which twine round anything they touch. The narrow, heart-shaped leaves
are 10–20 cm long. The fruit
is round, 5–7 cm in diameter, smooth, yellow-brownish or green-brownish colour, with a hard but thin skin covered by fine hairs. It contains a sweet, fleshy, edible pulp and numerous seed
s.
province of Guangxi
(mostly in the mountains near Guilin
), as well as in Guangdong
, Guizhou
, Hunan
, and Jiangxi
provinces. These mountains lend the plants shadows and often are surrounded by mists; because of this the plants are protected from the sun. Nonetheless, the climate in this southern province is warm. The plant is rarely found in the wild and has hence been cultivated for hundreds of years.
Records as early as 1813 mention the cultivation of this plant in the Guangxi province. At present, the Guilin mountains harbor a plantation of 16 square kilometers with a yearly output of about 10,000 fruits. Most of the plantations are located in Yongfu County
and Lingui County
, which in China are renowned for the extraordinary number of centenarian
s. This is sometimes attributed to the consumption of this fruit and the unspoiled nature. The locals, however, believe in their calm lifestyle and simple diet.
Longjiang Town in Yongfu County has acquired the name "home of the Chinese luohanguo fruit"; a number of companies specialised in making luohanguo extracts and finished products have been set up in the area. The Yongfu Pharmaceutical Factory is the oldest of these.
, chronic cough
, and constipation
, and are reputed to aid longevity. The fruit is also used as a natural sweetener
in the treatment of diabetes and obesity
.
as a GRAS (generally recognized as safe
) product. There are no restrictions on consuming the fruit or its extracts.
s, a group of triterpene
glycosides that make up approximately 1% of the flesh of the fresh fruit. Through solvent extraction, a powder containing 80% mogrosides can be obtained, the main one being mogroside-5 (esgoside) Other similar agents in the fruit are siamenoside
and neomogroside
.
Recent research suggests that isolated mogrosides work have antioxidant
properties and may have limited anti-cancer
effects.
Mogrosides have also been shown to inhibit induction of Epstein-Barr virus in vitro
.
The plant also contains a glycoprotein called momorgrosvin, which has been shown to inhibit ribosomal protein synthesis
Luohan 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. Furthermore, it develops a rotten taste on fermentation, which adds to the unwanted flavours already present.
Thus the fruits are usually dried before further use and are sold in precisely this fashion in Chinese herbal
shops. The fruits are slowly dried in ovens, preserving them and removing most of the unwanted aromas. However, this technique also leads to the formation of several bitter and astringent
aromas. 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
added to them.
ed in 1995 by Procter & Gamble
. The patent states that, while luo han guo is very sweet, it has too many interfering aromas, which render it useless for general application. Thus the company developed a process for the removal of the interfering aromas.
In this process, the fresh fruit is harvested before it is fully mature, and is then matured in storage so that it may be processed precisely when it is mature. The shell and seeds are then removed, and the pulped fruit is made into a fruit concentrate or puree
. This is then used in the further production of food. Solvent
s are used, amongst other things, to remove the interfering aromas.
Powdered instant luohan guo is sold by the Yongfu company in China, Hong Kong and in Chinese shops in the West.
There are a number of other products which contain luohan guo either on its own or in a mix with other herbs. For example it is used with Ginkgo biloba against cough, with chrysanthemum
against heatstroke and headache
or with asparagus
, Oldenlandia
, Scutellaria
, and pearl powder
to detoxify.
Recently, IZZE
beverage company debuted a line of low-calorie juices using luo han guo as a sweetener.
Celestial Seasonings has a winter holiday tea called Gingerbread Spice that lists it as the last ingredient.
Quest Nutrition uses it as a sweetener along with sucralose in their protein bars.
Kashi uses luohan guo concentrate in its Berry Blossoms and Honey Sunshine cold cereal.
An extract of the fruit, along with erythritol
is also used by the Japanese company Saraya Corporation for manufacturing of the sugar substitute Lakanto, for people following a candida control diet.
, Guilin
was one of the most important Buddhist retreats containing many temples. The fruit was named after the arhats , a group of Buddhist monks who, due to their proper way of life and meditation
, achieved enlightenment
and were said to have been redeemed. According to Chinese history, the fruit was first mentioned in the records of the 13th century monks who used it.
However, plantation space was limited: it existed mainly in the slopes of the Guangxi
and Guangdong
mountains, and to a lesser degree in Guizhou
, Hunan
, Jiangxi
, and Hainan
. This and the difficulty of cultivation meant that the fruit did not become part of the Chinese herbal tradition, which depended on more readily available products. This is also the reason why one finds no mention of it in the traditional guides to herbs.
).
It was known that the juice of the fruits was very sweet.
Groff and Hoh realised that the fruit was an important Chinese domestic remedy for the treatment of cold and pneumonia when consumed with pork.
Interviews have confirmed that the fruit only recently gained importance in Chinese history. Nonetheless, it appears that a small group of people had mastered its cultivation a long time ago and had accumulated extensive knowledge on growth, pollination, and climatic requirements of the plant.
The fruit came to the United States in the early 20th century. Groff mentions that during a visit to the American ministry of agriculture in 1917, the botanist Frederick Coville showed him a luohanguo fruit bought in a Chinese shop in Washington. Seeds of the fruit which had been bought in Chinese shop in San Francisco were entered into the universal botanic description of the species in 1941.
The first research into the sweet component of luohan 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
).
The development of luohan guo products in China has continued ever since, focusing in particular on the development of concentrated extracts.
Herbaceous
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
vine
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...
native to southern China and Northern Thailand. The plant is best known for its fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
, commonly called luo han guo or luo han kuo (from the Chinese luóhàn guǒ, 羅漢果, 罗汉果, sometimes printed lohoguo in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
), la han qua (from Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
la hán quả), arhat fruit, Buddha
Buddha
In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
fruit, or monk fruit
Monk fruit
Monk Fruit, also commonly called luo han guo or luo han kuo , la han qua , arhat fruit, or Buddha fruit. It is the fruit of the vine Siraitia grosvenorii and is native to China. Botanical synonyms include Momordica grosvenorii and Thladiantha grosvenorii...
. Botanical synonyms include Momordica grosvenorii and Thladiantha grosvenorii. The fruit is one of several that have been called longevity
Longevity
The word "longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography or known as "long life", especially when it concerns someone or something lasting longer than expected ....
fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
. The species was named in honor of Gilbert Grosvenor.
The plant is cultivated for its fruit, used for cooling drinks and in traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine refers to a broad range of medicine practices sharing common theoretical concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage , exercise , and dietary therapy...
. The fruit extract is nearly 300 times sweeter
Sweetness
Sweetness is one of the five basic tastes and is almost universally regarded as a pleasurable experience. Foods rich in simple carbohydrates such as sugar are those most commonly associated with sweetness, although there are other natural and artificial compounds that are sweet at much lower...
than sugar and has been used as a natural low-calorie sweetener
Sugar substitute
A sugar substitute is a food additive that duplicates the effect of sugar in taste, usually with less food energy. Some sugar substitutes are natural and some are synthetic. Those that are not natural are, in general, called artificial sweeteners....
in China for nearly a millennium to treat diabetes and obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
Description
The vine attains a length of 3 to 5 m, climbing over other plants by means of tendrilTendril
In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape that is used by climbing plants for support, attachment and cellular invasion by parasitic plants, generally by twining around suitable hosts. They do not have a lamina or blade, but they can photosynthesize...
s which twine round anything they touch. The narrow, heart-shaped leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are 10–20 cm long. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
is round, 5–7 cm in diameter, smooth, yellow-brownish or green-brownish colour, with a hard but thin skin covered by fine hairs. It contains a sweet, fleshy, edible pulp and numerous seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s.
Cultivation
It is grown primarily in the far southern ChineseSouth Central China
South Central China is a region of the People's Republic of China defined by governmental bureaus that includes the provinces of Guangdong, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan, and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, however excluding the 2 special administrative regions : Hong Kong and...
province of Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
(mostly in the mountains near Guilin
Guilin
Guilin is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of far southern China, sitting on the west bank of the Li River. Its name means "forest of Sweet Osmanthus", owing to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located in the city...
), as well as in Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, Guizhou
Guizhou
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...
, Hunan
Hunan
' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
, and Jiangxi
Jiangxi
' is a southern province in the People's Republic of China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to...
provinces. These mountains lend the plants shadows and often are surrounded by mists; because of this the plants are protected from the sun. Nonetheless, the climate in this southern province is warm. The plant is rarely found in the wild and has hence been cultivated for hundreds of years.
Records as early as 1813 mention the cultivation of this plant in the Guangxi province. At present, the Guilin mountains harbor a plantation of 16 square kilometers with a yearly output of about 10,000 fruits. Most of the plantations are located in Yongfu County
Yongfu County
Yongfu County is a county in Guilin, Guangxi, China, located 55 km to the southwest of Guilin. The county is mostly rural and hilly, marked by the same dramatic karst topography for which Guilin is famous....
and Lingui County
Lingui County
Lingui County is a county administered by Guilin, Guangxi, China, and located midway between Guilin and Yangshuo. The county is mostly rural and hilly, marked by the same dramatic karst topography for which Guilin is famous.-History:...
, which in China are renowned for the extraordinary number of centenarian
Centenarian
A centenarian is a person who is or lives beyond the age of 100 years. Because current average life expectancies across the world are less than 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more, something only...
s. This is sometimes attributed to the consumption of this fruit and the unspoiled nature. The locals, however, believe in their calm lifestyle and simple diet.
Longjiang Town in Yongfu County has acquired the name "home of the Chinese luohanguo fruit"; a number of companies specialised in making luohanguo extracts and finished products have been set up in the area. The Yongfu Pharmaceutical Factory is the oldest of these.
Traditional uses
The plant is most prized for its sweet fruits, which are used for medicinal purposes, and as a sweetener. The fruits are generally sold in dried form, and traditionally used in herbal tea or soup. They are used for heat stroke, sore throatSore throat
A sore throat or throat pain is a common physical symptom usually caused by acute pharyngitis, or throat inflammation, though it also occurs in a number of other situations, such as post trauma and in diphtheria. It can cause mild to extreme pain....
, chronic cough
Cough
A cough is a sudden and often repetitively occurring reflex which helps to clear the large breathing passages from secretions, irritants, foreign particles and microbes...
, and constipation
Constipation
Constipation refers to bowel movements that are infrequent or hard to pass. Constipation is a common cause of painful defecation...
, and are reputed to aid longevity. The fruit is also used as a natural sweetener
Sweetener
Sweetener is a sugar substitute.Sweetener may also refer to:* Sugar alcohol* Honey* Syrup...
in the treatment of diabetes and obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
.
Toxicity
There are no reported incidents of negative side effects of luohan guo. It is classed by the US Food and Drug AdministrationFood and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
as a GRAS (generally recognized as safe
Generally recognized as safe
Generally recognized as safe is an American Food and Drug Administration designation that a chemical or substance added to food is considered safe by experts, and so is exempted from the usual Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act food additive tolerance requirements.-History:On January 1, 1958,...
) product. There are no restrictions on consuming the fruit or its extracts.
Active agents
The sweet taste of the fruit comes mainly from mogrosideMogroside
A mogroside is any of several chemical compounds found in certain plants, such as the fruit of the gourd vine luo han guo . They are glycosides of cucurbitane derivatives...
s, a group of triterpene
Triterpene
Triterpenes are terpenes consisting of six isoprene units and have the molecular formula C30H48.The pentacyclic triterpenes can be classified into lupane, oleanane or ursane groups.Animal- and plant-derived triterpenes exist, such as:*squalene...
glycosides that make up approximately 1% of the flesh of the fresh fruit. Through solvent extraction, a powder containing 80% mogrosides can be obtained, the main one being mogroside-5 (esgoside) Other similar agents in the fruit are siamenoside
Siamenoside
Siamenoside is a natural sweetener found in the fruit of Siraitia grosvenorii, together with neomogroside. The mix of the two chemicals is about 300 times sweeter than sucrose. It is used as a natural sweetener in China....
and neomogroside
Neomogroside
Neomogroside is a cucurbitane glycoside isolated from the fruit of Siraitia grosvenorii....
.
Recent research suggests that isolated mogrosides work have antioxidant
Antioxidant
An antioxidant is a molecule capable of inhibiting the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When...
properties and may have limited anti-cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
effects.
Mogrosides have also been shown to inhibit induction of Epstein-Barr virus in vitro
In vitro
In vitro refers to studies in experimental biology that are conducted using components of an organism that have been isolated from their usual biological context in order to permit a more detailed or more convenient analysis than can be done with whole organisms. Colloquially, these experiments...
.
The plant also contains a glycoprotein called momorgrosvin, which has been shown to inhibit ribosomal protein synthesis
Traditional processing
Thus the fruits are usually dried before further use and are sold in precisely this fashion in Chinese herbal
Chinese herbology
Chinese Herbology is the theory of Traditional Chinese herbal therapy, which accounts for the majority of treatments in Traditional Chinese medicine ....
shops. The fruits are slowly dried in ovens, preserving them and removing most of the unwanted aromas. However, this technique also leads to the formation of several bitter and astringent
Astringent
An astringent substance is a chemical compound that tends to shrink or constrict body tissues, usually locally after topical medicinal application. The word "astringent" derives from Latin adstringere, meaning "to bind fast"...
aromas. 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
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
or honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
added to them.
The Procter & Gamble process
The process for the manufacture of a useful sweetener from luo han guo was patentPatent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
ed in 1995 by Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
. The patent states that, while luo han guo is very sweet, it has too many interfering aromas, which render it useless for general application. Thus the company developed a process for the removal of the interfering aromas.
In this process, the fresh fruit is harvested before it is fully mature, and is then matured in storage so that it may be processed precisely when it is mature. The shell and seeds are then removed, and the pulped fruit is made into a fruit concentrate or puree
Purée
Purée and mash are general terms for cooked food, usually vegetables or legumes, that have been ground, pressed, blended, and/or sieved to the consistency of a soft creamy paste or thick liquid. Purées of specific foods are often known by specific names, e.g., mashed potatoes or apple sauce...
. This is then used in the further production of food. Solvent
Solvent
A solvent is a liquid, solid, or gas that dissolves another solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution that is soluble in a certain volume of solvent at a specified temperature...
s are used, amongst other things, to remove the interfering aromas.
Products
There are a number of commercially prepared luohan guo products:Powdered instant luohan guo is sold by the Yongfu company in China, Hong Kong and in Chinese shops in the West.
There are a number of other products which contain luohan guo either on its own or in a mix with other herbs. For example it is used with Ginkgo biloba against cough, with chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums, often called mums or chrysanths, are of the genus constituting approximately 30 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Asteraceae which is native to Asia and northeastern Europe.-Etymology:...
against heatstroke and headache
Headache
A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...
or with asparagus
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennialplant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and...
, Oldenlandia
Oldenlandia
Oldenlandia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is pantropical in distribution and has about 240 species. The type species for the genus is Oldenlandia corymbosa....
, Scutellaria
Scutellaria
Scutellaria is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It contains about 300 species, which are commonly known as skullcaps...
, and pearl powder
Pearl powder
Pearl powder is a preparation of crushed pearls used in China for skin care, and in traditional Chinese medicine as an anti-inflammatory and detoxification agent. In Chinese medicine, it is also used frequently as a relaxant....
to detoxify.
Recently, IZZE
Izze
Izze is the brand name of a line of carbonated juice drinks produced by the IZZE Beverage Company in Boulder, Colorado, which is owned by PepsiCo. The drinks consist of 70% fruit juice from concentrate, and 30% seltzer water...
beverage company debuted a line of low-calorie juices using luo han guo as a sweetener.
Celestial Seasonings has a winter holiday tea called Gingerbread Spice that lists it as the last ingredient.
Quest Nutrition uses it as a sweetener along with sucralose in their protein bars.
Kashi uses luohan guo concentrate in its Berry Blossoms and Honey Sunshine cold cereal.
An extract of the fruit, along with erythritol
Erythritol
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that has been approved for use as a food additive in the United States and throughout much of the world. It was discovered in 1848 by British chemist John Stenhouse. It occurs naturally in some fruits and fermented foods...
is also used by the Japanese company Saraya Corporation for manufacturing of the sugar substitute Lakanto, for people following a candida control diet.
History
During the Tang dynastyTang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
, Guilin
Guilin
Guilin is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of far southern China, sitting on the west bank of the Li River. Its name means "forest of Sweet Osmanthus", owing to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located in the city...
was one of the most important Buddhist retreats containing many temples. The fruit was named after the arhats , a group of Buddhist monks who, due to their proper way of life and meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
, achieved enlightenment
Enlightenment in Buddhism
The English term enlightenment has commonly been used in the western world to translate several Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Japanese terms and concepts, especially bodhi, prajna, kensho, satori and buddhahood.-Insight:...
and were said to have been redeemed. According to Chinese history, the fruit was first mentioned in the records of the 13th century monks who used it.
However, plantation space was limited: it existed mainly in the slopes of the Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
and Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
mountains, and to a lesser degree in Guizhou
Guizhou
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...
, Hunan
Hunan
' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...
, Jiangxi
Jiangxi
' is a southern province in the People's Republic of China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to...
, and Hainan
Hainan
Hainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, of its land mass is Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
. This and the difficulty of cultivation meant that the fruit did not become part of the Chinese herbal tradition, which depended on more readily available products. This is also the reason why one finds no mention of it in the traditional guides to herbs.
Western rediscovery in the 20th century
The herb became better known to the West in the 20th century. The first report on the herb in English was found in an unpublished manuscript written in 1938 by Professor G. W. Groff and Hoh Hin Cheung. The report stated that the fruits were often used as the main ingredients of "cooling drinks," that is, as remedies for hot weather, fever, or other dysfunctions traditionally associated with warmth or heat (i.e. inflammationInflammation
Inflammation is part of the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and to initiate the healing process...
).
It was known that the juice of the fruits was very sweet.
Groff and Hoh realised that the fruit was an important Chinese domestic remedy for the treatment of cold and pneumonia when consumed with pork.
Interviews have confirmed that the fruit only recently gained importance in Chinese history. Nonetheless, it appears that a small group of people had mastered its cultivation a long time ago and had accumulated extensive knowledge on growth, pollination, and climatic requirements of the plant.
The fruit came to the United States in the early 20th century. Groff mentions that during a visit to the American ministry of agriculture in 1917, the botanist Frederick Coville showed him a luohanguo fruit bought in a Chinese shop in Washington. Seeds of the fruit which had been bought in Chinese shop in San Francisco were entered into the universal botanic description of the species in 1941.
The first research into the sweet component of luohan 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
Jiaogulan
Gynostemma pentaphyllum, also called jiaogulan is an herbaceous vine of the family Cucurbitaceae indigenous to the southern reaches of China, northern Vietnam, southern Korea, and Japan. Jiaogulan is best known as an herbal medicine reputed to have powerful antioxidant and adaptogenic effects...
).
The development of luohan guo products in China has continued ever since, focusing in particular on the development of concentrated extracts.