The lychee
has a history and cultivation going back to 2000 BC according to records in
China.Cultivation began in the area of
southern China, Malaysia, and Vietnam.Wild trees still grow in parts of southern China and on Hainan Island.
There are many stories of the fruit's use as a delicacy in the Chinese Imperial Court. It was first described and introduced to the West in 1656 by Michal
Boym, a Polish Jesuit missionary . Fruits mature in 80–112 days, depending on
climate, location, and cultivar. Fruits vary in shape from round to ovoid to
heart shaped. The thin, tough inedible skin is green when immature, ripening to
red or pink red, and is smooth or covered with small sharp protuberances. The
skin turns brown and dry when left out after harvesting.
The fleshy, edible
portion of the fruit is an aril, surrounding one dark brown inedible seed that
is 1 to 3.3 cm long and 0.6 to 1.2 cm wide.Some cultivars produce a high percentage of fruits with shriveled
aborted seeds known as 'chicken tongues'. These fruit typically have a higher
price, due to having more edible flesh. Litchi chinensis is an evergreen tree
that is frequently less than 15 mtall,
sometimes reaching more than 19 m .The
bark is grey-black, the branches a brownish-red. Leaves are 10 to 25 cmor longer, with leaflets in 2-4 pairs.
Litchee have a similar foliage to the Lauraceae family likely due to convergent
evolution. They are adapted by developing leaves that repel water, and are
called laurophyll or lauroid leaves. Flowers grow on a terminal inflorescence
with many panicles on the current season's growth. Lychees have moderate
amounts of polyphenols, shown in one French study to be higher than several
other fruits analyzed, such as grapes and apples.For phenolic composition, flavan-3-ol monomers
and dimers were the major compounds representing about 87% of total polyphenols
that declined in content during storage or browning.
Cyanidin-3-glucoside represented 92% of total
anthocyanins.Lychee contains oligonol,
a short-chain polyphenol under preliminary evaluation for its potential
biological properties. The panicles grow in clusters of ten or more, reaching
10 to 40 cmor longer, holding hundreds
of small white, yellow, or green flowers that are distinctively fragrant.
Lychees are commonly sold fresh in Asian markets, and in recent years, also
widely in supermarkets worldwide. The red rind turns dark brown when the fruit
is refrigerated, but the taste is not affected. It is also sold canned
year-round. The fruit can be dried with the rind intact, at which point the
flesh shrinks and darkens.Dried lychees
are often called lychee nuts, though they are not a real nut.
Very Joicey ......
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