If you translate the name of the lychee fruit, then it sounds like a Chinese plum. The fruit is very popular not only among locals and tourists, but also among perfumers, confectioners, gourmets, as well as manufacturers of Thai cosmetics for hair and skin care. Many millions of tourists travel to Thailand with several main goals, among which - to try exotic fruits and lychees in this list of exotics occupies a leading position. It is best to buy lychee in the markets, where fruits are fresh and inexpensive.
On the appearance Lychee looks like a small ball of a rounded even shape, and its peel resembles a thin red shell. Lychees grow on fruit tree in the form of large clusters, which from afar look like a cluster of large raspberries on a branch.
The color of the lychee varies, but in general it is included in certain color ranges - from pink to a bright purple hue. The fruit may have a slight shade of plum color, for which it received the name Chinese plum.
How does lychee grow?
Lychee grows on tall exotic trees, the height of which ranges from 10 to 30 meters. Fruits are collected on the branches of the tree, the diameter of which rarely exceeds 4 centimeters.
When is lychee season in Thailand?
For a long time, lychee fruit was not grown in Thailand, but was imported into the state exclusively from China. Therefore, it was considered expensive and inaccessible to the local population. However, over the past decades, Thais have learned to cultivate this crop on their own.
Lychee season in Thailand is from April to June. It falls this month enough rainfall and air temperature is kept within 26-30 degrees around the clock. All these weather conditions ideal conditions for the growth of lychee within the famous resorts of Thailand.
Lychee fruit is always sold only on a twig, because without it, the fruits are very poorly stored and quickly deteriorate. The average cost of lychee in Thailand per kilogram ranges from 40 baht in the north of the state to 70 baht in the south and popular resorts.
Lychee taste
Lychee pulp is very tender, tasting similar to grapes. The pulp contains a large amount of liquid, therefore it is considered unnecessarily watery. The taste of the fruit can give a slight sourness or even a slight astringency.
Lychee grows not only in Thailand and China, but also in Africa and Latin America, as well as in Cambodia and Vietnam. And on different continents, the taste of lychee can vary - from very sweet to very sour. Such features depend on the number of sunny days and the amount of precipitation that falls during the growing season of the fruit.
Useful properties of litchi
Lychee contains useful components which have a beneficial effect on human digestion. These components include vitamins B1 and B2, as well as a high content of vitamin C. In addition to the group of vitamins, lychee contains phosphorus and iron in combination with nicotinic acid.
Normalization of digestion to a greater extent occurs due to high concentration in lychee carbohydrates. Most often, lychee is used as a tonic, but the fruit is also recommended for use in various diseases:
- Anemia or anemia of mild severity.
- In diabetes, to restore and normalize blood sugar levels.
- With violations in the work and functioning of organs such as the kidneys, lungs and liver.
- Recommend the use of litchi in the presence of diseases of the cardiovascular system.
- When making a diagnosis such as high level cholesterol in the blood.
- Prevention in the treatment of atherosclerosis.
- In case of malfunction gastro- intestinal tract.
Already for a long time traditional healers of Thailand and China create own recipes for the treatment of serious oncological diseases. Lychee is added during the preparation of a decoction based on medicinal herbs and lemongrass. Such a tool will also help to quickly restore lost physical strength after illness.
low calorie this exotic fruit attracts everyone who sits on strict diets or adheres to healthy eating. The calorie content of 100 grams of lychee is 66.
Lychee harm
Lychee harm can manifest itself only in two cases: with excessive daily consumption fruit or when eating a bone. Children are not recommended to give more than 100 grams of raw lychee to avoid allergic reactions (rash, redness, itching, etc.).
With individual intolerance to any component of the lychee, it is worth refusing to consume the fruit.
How to choose the right lychee?
A fairly large selection of fresh and only cut lychees can be found in the north of the state, since it is in this part of Thailand that the majority of plantations with fruit crops are located. Lychee prices still remain quite high compared to other exotic ones.
When choosing lychee, it is worth remembering that lychee is divided into dozens of varieties. Therefore, if you see a fruit that is not the same as in the pictures, you should not think about its staleness or poor quality, as these are just differences in the species diversity of the fruit.
When choosing lychee, it is necessary to pay special attention to the integrity of the outer cover of the fruit:
- there should be no soft areas;
- the peel of the fruit should be free of cracks, chips and breaks;
- to the touch, the fruit should be dense and elastic;
- the brown color of the fruit indicates its staleness.
How to store litchi?
In order to preserve lychee for a long time, it must first be purchased in clusters along with branches and leaves. Within one month it is possible to keep the fruit if it is stored in cold store with temperatures ranging from 2 to 7 degrees Celsius. At room temperature you will be able to save the lychee in fresh no more than 3 days.
How are lychees cleaned and eaten?
To peel the lychee, you just need to cut the thin shell with a knife and separate it from the pulp. Before taking lychee, you need to remove a large dark bone which can be toxic to the human body.
Lychee is consumed raw, but quite often you can find options for adding fruit to exotic alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails. In restaurants in Thailand, lychee pulp is used to prepare the base for sauces for meat or fish, as well as sweet syrups for ice cream and desserts. It is a long tradition to add fresh and dried lychee peel to tea as a persistent and pronounced sweet aroma.
When dried, with a bone inside, the lychee turns into a kind of small nut, which can also be consumed. Many locals Thailand I use lychee for canning in sugar syrup which is very tasty.
Lychee is very popular all over Thailand and many tourists in the growing season of the fruit instantly buy it from the counters of markets and supermarkets. A large number of vitamins and trace elements make lychee not only delicious fruit but also insanely useful for our body.
It looks like a strawberry tropical fruit is perhaps one of the most popular fruits South-East Asia. Liches are often associated with Thailand, although, in fairness, it should be noted that this fragrant fruit originally from southern China. Only in the 17th century did Chinese emigrants bring lychee to Thailand, where it came to court. And at present, about two dozen varieties of this fruit are already cultivated in Thailand. And the export of lychee has become one of the important components of the Thai economy. In this article, I will try to fill another gap in your knowledge about exotic fruits: I will tell you about the lychee fruit, the benefits of lychee, and how lychee is eaten.
Lychee fruits are small, about 3 centimeters in diameter and weighing about 20 grams, have a round or oval shape and are covered with a red pimply skin, under which there is a white jelly-like pulp and a large shiny, similar to horse chestnut brown seed. By the way, when you see a lychee fruit in a section, you will immediately understand why in your homeland - in China, the fruit is often called the “dragon's eye”.
Lychees have a sweet taste with a slight sourness and a light pink aroma. They perfectly quench thirst, tone up and are very useful for regulating digestion and with anemia. Lychees are rich in vitamins C, B1 and B2, as well as carbohydrates, iron, phosphorus and nicotinic acid.
In addition, lychee fruits are the strongest aphrodisiac. However, keep in mind that you should not get involved in lychees, because a person who has overeaten these fruits can face a lot of unpleasant consequences, such as severe dryness of the lips, sores on the tongue, and nosebleeds.
How to eat lychee
When buying lychees, look for fruits that are pinkish or dark red in color and free of scratches and bruises. Lychee can be stored in the refrigerator. And a very long time - up to three weeks. True, the lychee peel turns brown in the refrigerator, but the taste of the fruit does not change.
Lychee must be peeled and the inner membrane removed before consumption. To do this, cut the fruit with a knife along. The stone also needs to be removed, as it is not only inedible, but also slightly poisonous.
The taste of lychee goes well with the taste of coconut, lime, ginger…
Lychee fruit is used in the preparation of all kinds of desserts (in particular, as a filling for pies or pancakes), cocktails, sweet and sour sauces for meat dishes, salads, wine, liqueurs... Lychee goes well with fish.
Lychee is consumed not only fresh. All year round they are also sold in pickled and canned form.
And further. Perhaps, precisely because the fruit grows on trees in large clusters, in Russian its name is used only in the plural. There are no singular forms. Therefore, when speaking of liches, they speak, and not he, she or it.
And by the way, such exotic fruits as rambutan and longan are close relatives of lychee. However, I will tell you about these fruits in separate articles. They deserve it.
Marina GREBENSHIKOVA
Lychee is one of the symbols of the great people of China, where it has been cultivated for over a thousand years. Its red, pink or green skin hides a shiny sweet flesh with a slight bitterness.
The fruit of the evergreen lychee tree, oval shape, hang in bundles and contain one brown bone.
Lychee fruits contain a lot of carbohydrates in the form of sugars, but very little protein and fat, which makes them very attractive in terms of diet.
Exotic...
Olig preparation...
For some time now, more and more products have appeared on the shelves of our supermarkets. exotic fruits. You will not surprise anyone with pineapple, kiwi, banana, fig or coconut. All this has already been felt and tried more than once. But some fruits from equatorial countries still cause some concern among Russians. Seeing something unusual red or yellow in a basket on the market, many avert their eyes and do not ask, so as not to seem ignorant.
Well, those, still a few, who have visited the Bahamas, the Maldives, Honduras, etc. sometimes, with the air of connoisseurs, they take these round and oblong and flat fruits, and when they come home they try to find out with the help of the Internet what it is and what it is eaten with.
To some extent, they are right, it is often useless to ask our sellers, because you can hear something completely different from what this fruit actually represents. For example, the lychee fruit. And what you just don’t hear about these reddish fruits in pimples, the ears wither. In fact, lychee is very tasty and useful fruit. Let's try to tell everything that we could learn about this fruit.
Where and how does it grow?
Lychee is sometimes called the Chinese plum, and for good reason. It really looks like a plum, and besides, it is in the south of China that this plant is quite widespread and from there it began its journey to other countries. Now they meet in various countries Asia, America and Africa. This is an evergreen rather tall plant, usually about 10 meters high, but sometimes higher. Grows in well-drained, fertile soils. It grows quite slowly, begins to bear fruit only at 8-9 years. Fruits abundantly only in dry subtropics. This fruit tolerates a humid tropical climate, but does not give fruits, and it is not possible to grow a full-fledged fruit-bearing plant at home.
The leaves are oblong, dark green and shiny. It blooms yellowish, with stamens sticking out in all directions, whitish flowers exuding a strong aroma. The flowers are collected in large inflorescences similar to umbrellas, sometimes up to half a meter long.
The fruits ripen in June. Despite the fact that the inflorescences are quite large, the fruits are 4-5 times smaller, because most of the flowers crumble. Still, the tree as a whole gives a fairly large yield. When assembling, they pluck the whole fruit and store them on the branches, because separately plucked fruits quickly deteriorate.
The fruits themselves are relatively small in size - on average, in diameter, somewhere around three to four centimeters. The shape can be both oval and ovoid, depending on the variety. Such a fruit weighs about twenty grams. Outside, they have a rather dense red peel in small pimples. The pulp is white or cream-colored and looks like jelly. Large core inside Brown color. Taste ripe fruits sweet and sour, quite pleasant with bright aroma. Probably because the core stands out brightly in the cut, the Chinese often call this fruit "dragon's eye".
Benefit and harm
By their composition, lychee fruits contain a large number of trace elements: iron, phosphorus, copper, zinc, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, iodine, manganese and fluorine. The sugar content is within 6-14% depending on the place of growth. Also in not in large numbers contains fats, proteins, carbohydrates and dietary fiber. They contain a sufficient amount of B vitamins, as well as vitamins C, E, H and K. The nutritional value product no more than 75 kcal per 100 grams. Low calorie content, in an inexplicable way, is combined with high satiety. You can eat them in almost unlimited quantities, while satisfying your hunger well, but without getting a lot of calories. This property is indispensable for people prone to fullness.
Given the high content of vitamin C and trace elements of potassium, lychee is acceptable in the diet of people suffering from diseases of the cardiovascular system. In China, it has been practiced for a very long time in folk medicine in the treatment and prevention of atherosclerosis. It is effective in lowering cholesterol levels. It is a good tonic for the whole body. It is probably not in vain that the inhabitants of India, Nepal, and Pakistan consider lychee the fruit of love. For this purpose, a decoction prepared from the skin of the fruit is used. Such a decoction is also effective in removing excess fluid from the body, it has a beneficial effect on kidney function.
This exotic fruit has a lot of useful properties. It perfectly quenches thirst, especially in the heat. Regulates the work of the stomach and intestines, helping to get rid of constipation. Very good can help people who want to lose weight excess weight. It is very useful to eat litchi for people with anemia, diabetes, gastritis, peptic ulcer, in diseases of the liver and pancreas. In Tibetan medicine, lychee with lemongrass is used in the treatment of oncology. It is also effective in lowering blood sugar in diabetics. It is quite enough 10 fruits a day to normalize the level of sugar. In pharmacies, the drug "oligonol" obtained from fruits appeared. It is a good antioxidant, it is recommended for a number of diseases. In addition, it is used to reduce weight and slow down aging.
Many Asian countries, given the increased interest in lychee fruits in Europe, began to grow entire plantations of these trees. Harvested with branches can be stored for a long time, which allows it to be transported without problems. Useful properties are stored for a long time in dried and frozen form. Frozen fruits can be stored for more than a month, while they do not lose their taste and healing properties. But nevertheless, when buying, you need to carefully examine the appearance and condition of the fruit. Do not buy if their peel has darkened. Buy only those that do not have external defects and have a rich red color.
Contraindications
Hardly ever. They can be harmful only with individual intolerance. However, you need to know that you should not eat too much of them. Adults are quite enough 200-250 grams per day. For children, this rate is better to reduce to 100 grams. Otherwise, some may allergic reactions in the form of acne on the skin or on the oral mucosa.
How do you eat lychee?
Usually they are consumed fresh: wash, carefully remove the peel, remove the core, the pulp is ready to eat. In addition, it is very good to add the pulp to sauces and desserts. And if you add it to dry wine or champagne, okay amazing taste drink. The Chinese make wine from lychee fruits alone, the taste is specific. Perfect for serving fish and meat dishes instead of olives. It goes well with roasted game, lamb, pork. Very good in salads. Enjoy your meal!
Video: Lychee fruit, description, ...
The content of the article:
Chinese lychee fruit is the fruit of an evergreen tree growing in the tropics: Thailand, Cambodia, China, Vietnam, Africa, America. It has a wide spreading crown, and the trunk grows to a height of 15-30 meters. The botanical name is Litchi chinensis of the Sapindaceae family, the dicotyledonous class, the angiosperm division. There are also names: liji, lizhi, linchi, fox, lasi and Chinese plum. The branches of the tree are covered with beautiful shiny dark green leaves (complex, paired) lanceolate in shape, pointed at the tip. Curiously, lychee flowers do not have petals, it is a yellowish calyx on umbellate inflorescences about 70 cm long. The fruit crop also ripens in clusters and is harvested from May to June.
Pictured is a lychee tree
The fruit of the Chinese plum is red, covered with a peel with pointed tubercles, oval, from 2.5 to 4 centimeters long. Inside, under the skin of the lychee, there is a jelly-like light pulp with a pleasant grape sweet taste. A hard oval brown bone is “hidden” in the pulp.
How to choose and eat lychee
Fresh fruits have a bright color. The darker the color of the skin of this tropical fruit, the longer it has lain and the worse its taste. Those litchi are used for food that are not pressed through with fingers, dense, elastic, without holes and dents.
There are several varieties of this delicious product, but for all the peel is not suitable for food. To get to the edible part, you need to get rid of the bumpy shell: it is easy to clean with your fingers, for convenience, you can bite it and then peel it off with your hands. What is eaten inside the lychee is a translucent whitish pulp, elastic, not creamy, berry sweet taste with wine grape flavor, inside large bone that is easily separated from the pulp. It is said that those who have tried this tropical fruit at least once will fall in love with it forever. Not without reason, in our century, lychee is ahead of any fruit in its popularity in Southeast Asia and it is famous not only for its taste.
Lychees are tasty and nutritious fresh, they are dried whole (and it already becomes a nut), peeled (pitted) and preserved in sugar syrup, jelly, ice cream and other desserts are made from them. The Chinese add this fruit in the preparation of their traditional wine.
In Thailand, the price of one kilogram of lychee is about 40-70 baht ($1.3-2.2). They are always sold on a branch, since the fruit is poorly stored and after tearing off the berries, it quickly deteriorates.
The chemical composition and calorie content of lychee
Lychee not high-calorie fruit and besides being very tasty, it is also very useful in diet food. For beauty, fruits are a very valuable product: a high content of B vitamins maintain healthy hair and nails. So:
The calorie content of lychee per 100 g is 66 kcal (276 kJ), and also this:
- Carbohydrates - 16.53 g
- Proteins - 0.83 g
- Fats - 0.44 g
- Water - 81.76 g
- Dietary fiber 1.5 g
- Disaccharides 15.23 g
- B1 (thiamine) - 0.011 mg
- (niacin) - 0.6 mg
- B6 (pyridoxine) - 0.1 mg
- E (tocopherol) - 0.07 mg
- C (ascorbic acid) - 71.5 mg
- K - 0.4 mcg
- Potassium - 171 mg
- Magnesium - 10 mg
- Phosphorus - 31 mg
- Calcium - 5 mg
- Iron - 0.31 mg
- Sodium - 1 mg
- Zinc - 0.07 mg
- Selenium - 0.6 mcg
- Manganese - 0.055 mg
Useful properties of litchi
The photo shows the shell, bones and pulp of lychee
A pleasant refreshing taste invigorates not only because of the juiciness. The pulp of the fruit is certainly rich clean water, vitamins and generally has a general strengthening invigorating effect on a person. Depending on the variety of lychee, the percentage of sugar content ranges from 6 to 15 percent. The fruit also contains many useful dietary fiber, complex carbohydrates, protein and some fat. A large amount of vitamin C, potassium and magnesium, support cardiovascular system organism. Due to the high content of nicotinic acid, in traditional Chinese medicine, lychee is used as a remedy for atherosclerosis and reduces blood cholesterol levels with it.
Lychee is also useful for maintaining the work of the intestinal tract, they are rich in fiber. Even with diabetes, the fetus is useful for gastritis, anemia and other diseases. For example, these berries are "prescribed" for coughing, with an increase in the glands in the throat, their seeds help with neuralgia, orchitis and in eliminating pain. And in India, for a long time, lychee seeds have been collected, ground into powder, and then taken as medicine for intestinal problems.
Litchi fruit contraindications
Anyone who does not have an individual intolerance to the product can enjoy the taste of lychee.
And also, try to eat only fresh fruits, with a dark color of the lychee peel, they can cause indigestion.
In addition to the lychee fruit, there is a mammal of the same name from the genus of water goats - the African antelope Lychee.
The Chinese plum fruit began to be called in the middle of the 17th century, after the European Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza described it as a plum that can be eaten in large quantities without harm to the stomach.
The Chinese ate this fruit even before our era (around the 2nd century BC). One ancient Chinese emperor even executed his gardeners for failing to breed lychee trees in Northern China.
Lychee- a plant of the Salindov family. In addition, other names for this fruit are also known: “liji”, “fox”, “Chinese plum”. For the first time, they learned about this fruit in China, from where it spread to other territories. Today, this fruit is grown in China, Japan, Asia, Africa and America.
The fruits, which are oval or egg-shaped, are covered with a pimply red skin. It is easily removed and reveals a jelly-like pulp, which is colored white or cream. In the center is a fairly large brown seed (see photo). Sweet and sour pulp has a refreshing taste and aroma. The weight of the fruit, on average, reaches about 20 g, and the diameter is about 3 cm.
Beneficial features
Since lychee normalizes the work of the digestive tract, metabolism and quenches thirst, it can be eaten in the treatment of obesity. In addition, the composition of the fruit contains a large amount of fiber, which favorably affects the work of the intestines and resists the formation of constipation. As a prophylaxis, litchi is used to improve the functioning of the kidneys, liver and lungs.
Regular consumption of fruits reduces the risk of atherosclerosis as well as diseases of the heart and blood vessels. In addition, the fruits have the ability to remove “bad” cholesterol from the body.
Also used in cosmetology beneficial features lychee extract. It is impossible to get it at home, but pharmacological companies have the opportunity to use it in their products. Lychee extract has a positive effect on the condition of dry and sensitive skin, thanks to it it becomes softer and more hydrated. In addition, such products are used as anti-aging cosmetics, which cope with withering and aging of the skin, and it also helps to resist the harmful effects of the environment. The extract also contains mineral salts and antioxidants that help moisturize, soothe and heal the skin.
Use in cooking
In our area, lychee is exotic fruit, therefore, it is eaten extremely rarely, which cannot be said about countries where the fruits are widespread. Lychee is eaten not only raw, but also dried and canned. Various drinks are prepared from this fruit, including excellent refreshing juices and wine. Lychee pairs perfectly with fish and meat dishes. The fruit is used to prepare various marinades. Sauces, desserts, etc. are made from fruits.
Lychee benefits and treatment
The benefits of litchi are taken into account and are widely used in traditional medicine. In the East, healers recommend eating several fruits daily to normalize blood sugar levels, this is simply necessary for people with diabetes and hypoglycemia. In Chinese medicine, the fruit is used to prevent the occurrence of malignant tumors.
In folk medicine, the peel of the fruit is also used. It is used to prepare a decoction, which has the ability to increase the tone of the body and does not allow the accumulation of fluid in the tissues.
Lychee harm and contraindications
Lychee can harm people with individual intolerance to the product. In addition, it is worth controlling the amount of fruits eaten, since in large quantities, they can provoke the appearance of allergic reactions..
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