Lychee Fruit & Benefit for Health

Sweet lychees of nutrient-rich because it contains vitamin C and potassium levels are high. Substances that exist in the lychees to prevent and treat various diseases, including cough, stomach injury, and hypertension.

Lychee fruit (Litchi chinensis Sonn) is derived from Kwantung and Fukien province in Southern China. In 1873 this plant spread to Hawaii, then to Florida, USA in 1883. Kwantung and Fukien province in China known as the largest producer of lychee fruit, followed by India and other countries.

In Indonesia, the lychee crop is not so popular. However, because it has a unique taste and high economic value, this plant has also started to try cultivated in Bali (Gianyar, Tabanan, Badung) and Cianjur.

Lychee is a subtropical plant belonging to the family Sapindaceae or soapberry. Known by several terms, such as lichi, litchi, lichee, laichi, leechee, or lychee. Lychee fruit has a high selling price, whether in fresh or in processed form.

Solid Sugar
Water content in lychee fruit is high enough, which is about 77-83 percent, its energy levels reach 66 kcal per 100 grams. Most of the energy derived from carbohydrates (sugars), which is 59.5 kcal, the rest from protein and fat in a row by 2.8 kcal and 3.7 kcal. The content of carbohydrates in lychee fruit is high (16.53 g per 100 g of fruit) consisting of various types of sugar.

Lychee contain sucrose and glucose abundance, so eat lychee fruit at night to increase energy reserves for the next day. Sugars contained in the lychees varies depending on the variety, but generally reach 10-13 percent. Lychee is also a source of food fiber (dietary fiber) is tolerable, which is about 1.3 g per 100 g of fruit flesh.

Lipid content in lychee fruit is very low, so it is good to be consumed by all age groups, including also those who are dieting to maintain or lose weight. Therefore, there is no limit how many lychees that should be consumed per day.

Vitamin C and Potassium
Vitamins are the most prominent on lychee fruit is vitamin C content of 71.5 mg per 100 grams of fruit flesh. With 100 grams of lychee fruit, was able to meet more than 100 percent of vitamin C a day.

Vitamin C is a natural antioxidant that is very useful for attacks against free radicals, causes premature aging, cancer and other diseases. Based on these beliefs, these days a lot of vitamin C added to processed food products.

The dominant mineral in the lychee fruit is 171 mg potassium, phosphorus 31 mg, 10 mg magnesium, and calcium 5 mg. Despite the low levels, lychees also contains iron, zinc, copper, sodium, selenium, and other minerals.

Calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium are important minerals triad for bone formation and normal body frame, so that much needed children who are in a period of growth and also by adults to inhibit the rate of osteoporosis.
Copper is one mineral antioxidant. Lack of this mineral can interfere with normal mechanisms of the body in eliminating the presence of free radicals are constantly formed in the body.

Mineral copper (Cu) can form complexes with antioxidant enzyme systems superoxide Dismutase (SOD), which plays a role in neutralizing superoxide radicals.
It is very interesting from the mineral composition of lychee is the ratio between potassium (K) and sodium (Na) is very high, ie 171:1. This is very beneficial because the processed foods we consume daily is generally contain high Na, but very low K. This is exactly what led to the increasing number of people with hypertension in Indonesia.

Potassium (also known as potassium) plays an important role in improving the regularity of heart rate, activating muscle contractions, regulating delivery of other nutrients to body cells, controlling the balance of fluid in body tissue, and lower high blood pressure (hypertension). Thus, if regrettable food processing often leads to the low ratio of potassium to sodium, resulting from the use table salt and MSG (a flavor) are excessive.

Consumption of high food are expected to offset the high K Na due to consumption of food containing MSG and salt. The ratio of Na and K in the daily diet which is highly recommended is 1:1. Complete nutritional composition of litchi fruit can be seen in Table 1.

Acid levels on lychee fruit reaches .20 to .64 percent. The most dominant type of acid was malic acid which reached 80 percent, while the remaining 20 percent consists of citric acid, succinic, levulinat, phosphate, glutarat, malonic, and lactic acid. The combination of sugar and various types of acid causes the lychee has a sweet taste and refreshing.

Treat Cough and Stomach Injury
In the history of medicine, lychee fruit is believed to cure a cough and had a beneficial effect to cure gastralgia, tumor, and enlargement of the gland.

It has been reported that administration of fresh lychees in Florida, to heal the wounds of the stomach, so patients who previously bothered to go back to enjoy the meal with a delicious. The exact cause of it is not known scientifically.

As well as litchi and apricot fruit, lychee fruit also belong to the fruit that are hot (as most mature in the cold), so it is suitable group of people who consumed his body weak cold.

Vital energy and spleen they are mostly weak, low basic metabolism, the body produces less energy, feet and hands also feel cold on a hot day though. Their faces were whiter than normal people, and rarely feel thirsty, and do not like eating cold food. Fruits that are very useful for their heat.