Longan fruit, a valuable tonic for weak and postpartum women

What is longan fruit(Long Yan Rou)? Medicinally it mainly refers to the aril of Dimocarpus longan Lour. or Euphoria Longan (Lour.) Steud., which is a plant in the family Sapindaceae. Hence, other names of it include Long Yan, Longan Aril, Arillus Longan, Longan Flesh, dragon eyes, and Gui Yuan. In China it is primarily produced in Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan, Guangxi and other places. It is normally picked in the summer when the fruits become mature. And then it needs to get through a few more steps before the use – shell and pit removed, dried in the sun, and stored in dry place.

Longan plant is an evergreen tree, usually about 10 meters high. It has buttress root. Stout branchlets are puberulent and scattered with pale lenticels. Even pinnately compound leaf is alternate; the length of leaf with handle is from 15 to 30cm or even longer; leaflets are 4 to 5 pairs, or 3 to 6 pairs sometimes, and with small petiole that is usually no more than 5mm; blade is thin and leathery, from oblong-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate. Large inflorescence is acrogenous and axillary, with multiple branches, and densely covered with stellate hairs; pedicels are short; Sepals are nearly leathery, triangular-ovate, and about 2.5mm. Both sides are covered with brown tomentum and bundle of stellate hairs. Fruit is subglobose, drupaceous, indehiscent, 1.2 to 2.5cm in diameter, and usually brown or sometime pale yellow. Shell is slightly rough or few are with strumaes. Seeds are dark brown, bright, and completely wrapped by fleshy aril. Flowering time is from March to April and fruit season is from July to September.

Longan fruit health benefits
Both longan fruit and lychee make a name of themselves for their unique flavor. And it is generally acknowledged that lychee is much tastier. But when it comes to medicinal properties, Li Shizhen believes that the longan is even better. Actually longan has been used for medical purpose as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE).

According to modern research, fresh longan is not only sweet and refreshing in taste but also with very high nutritional value – containing abundant high carbohydrate, proteins, amino acids, vitamins B, C, calcium, phosphorus, iron, tartaric acid, adenine, etc. It cannot be denied that longan fruit advantages are enormous.

Modern pharmacological actions of longan
1. Vitamin P contained is especially helpful to the elderly since it is able to protect blood vessels and prevent the embrittling and hardening of the arteries.

2. It contains an active anti-aging ingredient. And this ingredient can inhibit the activity of flavin protease – monoamine oxidase type B (MAO-B), which is deemed to be something that makes people age. This discovery confirmed an old claim made by China’s first pharmacy monograph "Shen Nong’s Herbal Classic" – longan could help weight loss and keep people young.

3. Chinese Medicine Research Institute in Osaka Japan ever conducted an anti-cancer drug trial, in which more than 800 kinds of natural foods and medicine had been tested and the water extracts of longan were found with more than 90 percent inhibition rate on cervical cancer.

4. This fruit is rich in sugar, especially the digestible monosaccharides, which can be directly absorbed by human body. Therefore, it is a valuable tonic for the weak and postpartum women.