Lo Han fruit, 250x sweeter than sugar

No relationship to Lindsay Lohan

Lo Han fruit is not related to teen starlet Lindsay Lohan, a popular celebrity of newspaper tabloids, nor is it named after her.

Rather Lo Han fruit is the secret to making Sweet Heart ® ~ organic zero calorie - fat burning sweetener, a fruit similar to kiwi fruit, that is 250x sweeter than sugar called Lo Han (latin name "Siraitia grosvenori", formerly called Momordica grosvenori). Lo Han fruit is a member of the Cucurbitaceae plant (Gourd family) and is similar to a sweet melon.

Other members of the Gourd family also contain remarkable sweet components, including additional species of the genus Siraitia (e.g., S. siamensis, S. silomaradjae, S. sikkimensis, S. africana, S. borneensis, and S. taiwaniana 2) and the popular herb jiaogulan (Gynostemma pentaphyllum).

Lo Han fruit has been harvested and used for over 1,000 years in China and is called the “longevity fruit”, since the region growing this fruit has a unusually high number of residents living to an age 100 years or more. Lo Han fruit has a cooling, calming, and stress-reducing effect. The highest quality Lo Han Guo fruit juice extract is combined with other natural fruit extracts to give Sweet Heart ® ~ organic zero calorie - fat burning sweetener a sweet and pleasant sugar taste.


Burns Fat

Lo Han fruit, in addition to having a very sugar-like taste with zero calories, this fruit has a truly interesting property – it is thermogenic. That means that instead of causing fat storage, it actually promotes weight loss!

Sweet Heart ® ~ organic zero calorie - fat burning sweetener is also blended with dietary fiber, another great weight loss ingredient. Dietary fiber binds with fat to eliminate it from your body and it also gives you a sense of fullness, so you eat less. Substituting Sweet Heart ® original sweetener for sugar can provide a natural zero calorie, fat-burning supplement no matter what weight loss program you are using.

It is a safe alternative to sugar for the average healthy person (child or adult). It is also generally safe for diabetics, with zero glycemic impact and and supports normal insulin levels.


Agriculture and History of Lo Han

Lo Han fruit has been harvested and used for over 1,000 years in China. Lo Han fruit is primarily grown in southern China, mainly in Guangxi Province, with most of the product from the pristine mountains of Guilin.

Lo Han fruit harvested in the mountains of Guilin

The steep mountains provide shade and they are frequently surrounded by mists that further protect against excessive sun, yet the temperature in this southern province is warm.

The name "Lo Han" somes from Buddist priests; luohan are advanced Buddhist practitioners (in India, they are called arhats). The name came about during the Tang Dynasty, when Guilin was a major Buddhist retreat area with many temples. The fruit term "guo" is used mainly for gourd-like fruits.

The story told in China is that knowledge of this fruit first emerged from monks who were using it during the 13th Century. Due to its limited natural growing area (mainly mountain sides in Guangxi and Guangdong; to a much lesser extent, in Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Hainan Island), and difficulty in cultivating it successfully, this fruit did not enter the general herb tradition of China, which depended on more abundant products.

The herb became more prominent during the 20th century. One early English-language report on it is an unpublished manuscript written in 1938 by Professor G.W. Groff and Hoh Hin Cheung. The fruits were reported to be frequently used as the main ingredient in cooling drinks (that is, drinks consumed to counteract hot weather, fever, or disorders described in the tradition as warm or hot in nature). The juice of fresh fruits was known to be very sweet.

The herb had been brought to the U.S. early in the 20th century. Groff mentions that during a 1917 visit to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, botanist Frederick Coville showed him a Lo Han fruit obtained from a local Chinese store in Washington, DC. Seeds from Lo Han fruits purchased in a San Francisco Chinese store were included in the original botanical description of the species in 1941.

The beginning of research into the sweet component of Lo Han is attributed to C.H. Lee, who published an English report in 1975, and to Tsunematsu Takemoto working in Japan in the early 1980s (he later turned his attention to studying jiaogulan). Development of Lo Han products in China has grown steadily since that time, particularly with the more recent development of highly concentrated extracts for use as sweeteners.

Sweet Heart ® organic zero calorie sweetener

Guilin now has a 4,000-acre Lo Han fruit growing area that produces 10,000 pieces of fruit annually. Most of these fields are in Yongfu and Lingui Counties, which are recognized in China as sites having an unusually high number of residents living to an age 100 years or more, which some attribute to the consumption of Lo Han, as well as the pristine environment. However, the local residents mainly proclaim the benefits of tranquil lifestyle, simple diet, and regular exercise.

The use of dried Lo Han fruit in whole, powdered or block forms is common in China. Lo Han juice is also used as a beverage and the powder is used as a seasoning. It has as many uses for the Chinese as Noni fruit has for the Hawaiians.



Lo Han Properties

Lo Han fruit is collected as a round green fruit that turns brown upon drying. The sweet taste of Lo Han comes primarily from "mogrosides", a group of terpene glycosides, present at the level of about 1% of the fleshy part of the fruit. Both the fresh and dried fruits are extracted to yield a powder that is 80% or more mogrosides. The mogrosides have been numbered, 1-5, and the main component is called mogroside-5, previously known as esgoside. Other, similar compounds from Lo Han have been labeled siamenoside and neomogroside. The mixed mogrosides are estimated to be about 300 times as sweet as sugar by weight, so that the 80% extracts are nearly 250 times sweeter than sugar; pure mogrosides 4 and 5 may be 400 times as sweet as sugar by weight.


Common names for Lo Han fruit include:

* Lo Han Guo
* Lo Han Kuo
* Arhat Fruit
* Fructus Momordicae
* Momordicae Grosvenori Fructus