Identify the popular fruits on the Internet.

Original Professor Liu Shaowei Professor Liu Shaowei

The picture comes from the Internet.

Identify it

Popular fruits on the Internet:

Longgongguo

The appearance is "cinnamon in the Guangxi", the inside is "bamboo in the bamboo" and the taste is "branch in the branch". This kind of fruit, which is like longan, mangosteen and litchi, has recently caused a new storm. Under the urging of curiosity, major online celebrity bloggers rushed to buy it. I didn’t expect this "string of small potatoes" to look inconspicuous, but the price was very expensive. A red platform actually sold for 80 yuan. Have you eaten again?

What is Dragon Palace Fruit?

The picture comes from the Internet.

Dragon Palace Fruit, also known as Dragon Gong Fruit, also known as Dugu, Lansangnei, Xiangguo and Fotou Fruit, originated in Pahang and Tengjialou, Malaysia. It is the most orthodox native fruit in the Malay Peninsula and is known as the "Fruit Princess". Later, the Thai people brought the seeds back to their hometown for planting, and then the dragon palace fruit was widely loved by local people. Longgong fruit trees in countries around Southeast Asia were all transplanted from Malay Peninsula. Nowadays, dragon palace fruit is more common in the hot and humid areas of southern Thailand, and it is said to be one of the favorite fruits of Thai princesses. Dragon Palace grows in clusters, with a small spherical shape and yellowish skin. It looks like loquat and is slightly smaller than loquat. It is precisely for this reason that foreign tourists who don’t understand it often call it "Thai loquat".

Loquat-the picture comes from the Internet.

Morphological characteristics of Longgong fruit

The picture comes from the Internet.

Dragon palace fruit is mixed with the characteristics of many kinds of fruits. Peel off the dragon palace fruit, and the fruit inside is crystal clear, which is very similar to longan. But longan pulp is wrapped in a stone, while the pulp of Longgong fruit is petal by petal, which looks a bit like grapefruit or mangosteen. The peel is light yellow, growing in small balls and shaped like miniature potatoes; The smell emitted is difficult to distinguish from longan; The taste is a bit like litchi, which is more textured and contains more water. The taste is also very special, a bit like the mixed taste of litchi, sweet orange and longan. It is very wonderful, the big one is sweet, the small one is sweet and slightly sour, and the fragrance is mellow and lingering.

Longyan

LONG YAN

The picture comes from the Internet.

Mountain bamboo

SHAN ZHU

The picture comes from the Internet.

Lizhi

LI ZHI

The picture comes from the Internet.

However, its stone is particularly bitter, so the locals call it "love fruit", which means that its taste is very similar to the feeling of love: first, it has a mysterious appearance, and when love happens, it also has a sweet and refreshing feeling, and when love disappears, it will also have a miserable feeling.

The efficacy of Longgong fruit:

01

Treat dyspepsia

Longgong fruit has a very good curative effect on dyspepsia, which is also the best performance of its medicinal value. It can promote the secretion of gastric juice, clear away the fire, and usually people can have a good appetite after eating it, which makes people want to eat a big meal.

The picture comes from the Internet.

02

Treat myocardial weakness

Longgong fruit is also very helpful for heart function, which can effectively enhance people’s myocardial contractility and promote blood circulation throughout the body, and has a very good therapeutic effect on diseases such as myocardial weakness and myocardial ischemia.

The picture comes from the Internet.

03

Treat cough and asthma

The peel of Longgong fruit has the effect of benefiting qi and relieving cough, and it can also make the smooth muscle in the human body relax, relieve organ spasm, make people breathe more smoothly and relieve cough symptoms.

How to peel

The peel of Longgong fruit is rich in pectin, which will stick to your hands if you are not careful. If you peel it from the bottom where Longgong fruit is connected with the branches, it is difficult to remove the film covered by the pulp. Instead, you can peel off the whole pulp from the top.

The picture comes from the Internet.

Edible period of Longgong fruit

The picture comes from the Internet.

The skin of fresh Longgong fruit is thick. From a distance, a pile of fruit looks like a small potato that has not been washed. After picking it for a few days, the peel will turn black and thin, but this is the best time to eat it, and the taste is amazing. May and June of each year is the flowering period of Longgong fruit. After one and a half months of flowering, the earliest batch of Longgong fruit will be put on the market in mid-July. At this time, people can try it first. August and September each year is the peak season for the listing of Longgong fruit. At this time, the quality of Longgong fruit is the best, the skin is thin and juicy, sweet and mellow.

Precautions for eating

Longgong fruit is a tropical fruit, and its branches occasionally contain ants, millipedes, scorpions or other insects. They usually hide in the branches of the fruit, so you need to be extra careful when eating to prevent accidental bites. The peel of Longgong fruit will turn black because of the juice secreted by the fruit, and the humidity of the branches will grow white hairs, and the fruit will drop during transportation. These are the normal appearance of Longgong fruit.

The picture comes from the Internet.

Unfortunately, although Longgong fruit is delicious, it is not resistant to storage, and its shelf life is very short. If it is kept for a long time, its skin will turn black and its taste will become worse. Therefore, there are few imported Longgong fruits in China, but they can still be bought online, which is quite expensive, which is quite different from the local ten pieces in Thailand. Small partners who want to eat it may wish to buy some to taste it in the mature period. Moreover, with the development of tourism in Thailand, it is becoming more and more important to taste fresh Longgong fruit directly in the local area.

Occasionally, there are Dragon Palace fruits imported from Thailand in the fruit market in Xishuangbanna, but the quantity will not be much. However, Yunnan Tropical Crops Research Institute has achieved fruitful results in the "Research Project on the Introduction and Propagation Technology of Tropical Rare Fruits", and more than 150 excellent tropical fruit varieties belonging to 15 families and 17 genera have been introduced. I believe this delicious fruit can be eaten at a low price in China in the near future.

Expert in this paper: Huang Xinhe, master candidate of food research and development in East China University of Science and Technology.

Liu Shaowei, doctor of food safety, member of expert group of Shanghai Food Safety Research Association, member of food safety professional committee of Shanghai Food Society, doctor of engineering from Pennsylvania State University, and postdoctoral fellow from Kansas State University.

References:

[1] Zhong Wen. Dragon Palace Fruit [J]. Global Human Geography, 2013(11):111.

[2] Zhouzhou. Thailand: the growth of tropical fruit exports is gratifying [J]. China Fruit Industry Information, 2022,39(07):48-49.

[3] Bai Bin. Xishuangbanna has made great achievements in introducing tropical fruits [J]. Information on Citrus and Subtropical Fruit Trees, 2004(05):20.

[4] Aili. There is no winter in Thailand [J]. South China today, 2007(03):45.