Durian: A fruit with a "hellish smell and divine taste. Exotic lychee fruit - fruits, seeds, peel: composition, vitamins, beneficial properties and contraindications for the body of women, men, children, pregnant women, while breastfeeding, photo

Lychee in Southeast Asia is considered one of the healthiest fruits. At home, in South China, it is known as "liji" or "Chinese plum". Here its use by historical data dates back to the 2nd century BC.

For an unusual appearance, the fruit was called by a second name - “ eye of the Dragon". To see the similarity, just look at what the lychee looks like in the photo.

It is covered on the outside with an unusual brownish-red skin, resembling scales on the body of an amazing creature. Inside is a translucent jelly-like pulp and a large dark bone.

In cross section, it looks exactly like a dragon's eye. The shape of the fruit is round, 2–5 cm in diameter. It is light and weighs no more than 10–25 grams.

« Chinese plum» grows in clusters on tall 10-20-meter trees. The earliest fruits can be tasted at the end of spring and enjoyed until mid-summer. It is for this that the fruit is so valued at home, because it begins to grow and appears on the market when all other crops are just ripening in gardens.

Taste and smell

Lychee is sour, but very gentle and pleasant. He has jelly-like consistency like it melts in your mouth. There is no definite answer to what its taste is like. For someone it fragrant strawberry, for others grape. It combined the whole fruit cocktail. It smells sweet and sweet, like delicate rose petals.

How to choose the right ripe and tasty fruit

You need to buy fruits in May-June - this is the ideal time when you can taste the real lychee. Choosing on the shelves of hundreds of clusters lying one, the very one, it is first necessary to study their peel. Its color should be saturated, bright red, without dark spots, cracks and dents. A photo of its appearance will help determine the purchase of the freshest lychee fruit.

To the touch - elastic, not too hard. The ripe fruit smells like a rose bush - lovely and sweet.

How to eat, or the culture of consumption

It is very easy to remove the peel from the purchased fruit, just grab it with a knife and pull the halves to the sides. It remains only to remove the bone and proceed to the tasting of the pulp.

"Dragon's eye" can be consumed not only fresh. Not less than healthy and tasty fruit dried, canned or frozen. Many add it to champagne, which acquires due to this wonderful aroma and rich taste.

The biggest downside to lychee is that it only lasts for three days after it's been plucked from the tree for its wonderful taste. Therefore, to feel its true taste, you need eat only fresh fruit.

Rules and features of storage

Storage conditions directly depend on the temperature regime. Lychee can be stored in a cool place for several months, but at room temperature it will not lie for more than three days. In addition, the fruits are perfectly preserved in salted or dried form. At the same time, gourmets note that lychee, as a fruit, does not lose its useful properties and taste.

Composition and benefits

The calorie content of the "Chinese plum" is very low (65 kcal / 100 grams). The fruit contains the following minerals valuable for the human body:

• magnesium;
• copper;
• phosphorus;
• zinc;
• potassium;

In addition, litchi is rich in vitamins PP, K, B, C and nicotinic acid, which prevents the development of atherosclerosis - the main cause of heart attack and stroke in humans. The benefits of the dragon's eye are simply invaluable.

1. It is useful for anemia.
2. Helps in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
3. Recommended for gastritis, liver failure, high cholesterol.
4. Many people who lose weight include lychee in their diets because it satisfies hunger well, has a low calorie content and has a positive effect on the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
5. Those who used the fruit during pregnancy noted its excellent property to relieve a woman from toxicosis.

Application in cooking and medicine

The dragon's eye is widely used in cooking. It is consumed fresh, prepared from salads, delicious fruit wine and sweet ice cream, added to carbonated drinks. The seeds are roasted, fragrant tea is brewed from the peel, which tends to tone up in the heat and give strength. Lychee is considered an excellent filling for baking; it makes the most delicate mousses and jelly. Despite the sweet taste, liji goes well with meat and fish dishes.

Lychee is a fruit, the beneficial properties of which are also reflected in cosmetology. In the laboratory, an extract is obtained from the fruit, which is added to skin and hair care products. It is especially useful for those who have sensitive and dry skin. It moisturizes and makes it softer, normalizes water balance and creates UV protection. With constant use, the extract included in the anti-aging cream fights against the natural processes of aging and aging of the skin.

Can Liji Be Harmful?

The dragon's eye can bring not only benefits, but also harm to the body. Most often this happens either if a person has an individual intolerance to the fetus, or with excessive use. In the latter case, irritation of the mucous membrane of the oral cavity, bleeding from the nose, and even sores in the sky are not excluded. It is also worth limiting the use of lychee during pregnancy, during feeding and giving it to young children with caution. Despite the fact that lychee has a low calorie content, it is not recommended to eat more than 10-15 fruits per day.

exotic lychee fruit

In ancient times, a bright fruit was considered an indicator of wealth and nobility. Only people of the highest strata were allowed to consume and enjoy its taste, and the poor were even punished by death for sampling. The latter were only allowed to engage in the assembly and transportation of fruits.

As a powerful aphrodisiac for humans, lychee has benefits and harms. It cheers up, brings together, awakens love, helps to liberate. Wine made from the fruits of the Chinese plum has a stimulating function. There is a well-known oriental proverb about this property, which says that "One lychee is equal to three burning torches." But that is why many use it as a love potion.

In Siam, during the lychee harvest, an unusual festival is held in honor of this fruit. So, in the province of Chiang Chai, every year they organize shows with fairs, musical performances and the Miss Lychee contest.

Lychee is one of the ten healthiest fruits in Southeast Asia. Its homeland is South China, thanks to which its name has several variants - “fox”, “Chinese plum”, “liji”.
For its unusual appearance, the fruit was given a second name - "dragon's eye". Outside, it has a scaly peel of red-brown color, and inside it has a translucent jelly pulp, which contains a very large black bone. Just like the eye of a strange beast. The fruit is round in shape with a diameter of 2 to 5 cm and weighs only 10–25 grams.

Lychee grows in small clusters on tall trees (similar to willow), which reach 10-20 meters. More than 100 varieties of this fruit are known. Its ripening ranges between late spring and mid-summer. The first fruits of lychee appear even when there are no fruits on the markets, and therefore they are highly valued.
Taste and smell of lychee.

Lychee almost melts in the mouth, its taste is similar to jelly made from rose petals, it is slightly sour. Some compare it to grapes and others to strawberries. Combining all the reviews, we can say that lychee is a mixture of berries, a kind of fruit cocktail. The aroma of the fruit is sugary-sweet, reminiscent of the smell of rose petals.

From the history…

Surprisingly, lychee is a very ancient fruit. There are facts that the Chinese used it for food as early as the 2nd century BC. e. And later they were even used as a local currency. Gradually, it spread to other Asian countries. It appeared in Europe only in the 17th century. The French were the first to grow it here, thanks to the traveler and botanist Pierre Sonner. It was he who brought this exotic fruit and its scientific description from a trip to Southeast Asia. And the first lychee plantation was laid by Joseph - Francois Charpentier de Cassigny (enthusiast - engineer) on the island of Reunion.

Lychee legends

Lychee, like many other fruits, has its own legends.

One of them says that in ancient times, a servant of a famous Chinese dynasty stumbled while walking past a lychee tree on its roots. Seeing unusual fruits, he decided to try them. He liked the taste very much, and the servant brought the fruit to his emperor. After that, the lychee became the favorite delicacy of the concubine of the great ruler. And so that she could always get fresh fruits, the emperor started a special army of messengers who every morning went to the other end of the state, plucked lychees and quickly returned back.

According to the second legend, a very severe emperor ruled in ancient times in the northern province of China. In one of his travels to the southern edges of the country, he came across an amazing fruit and tasted it. The taste reminded him of a plum, only it was much softer and more fragrant. The emperor wanted to grow lychees on his lands and entrusted this work to gardeners. But they could not cope with this task, then the lord ordered to execute them. And in the place where the blood was shed, a lychee tree suddenly grew, and its bright red fruits, like drops of blood, always reminded the emperor of what happened.

How to choose a lychee

The best time to buy fresh fruit is May-June, when there is a high probability of tasting the most delicious lychee. When choosing a fruit, first of all, you need to pay attention to its peel, more precisely, to its color. If it is very dark, the fruit was plucked a long time ago and its taste will already be completely unpleasant. Fresh lychee should have a rich red skin that is quite firm to the touch. It is also necessary to pay attention to the fact that the fruit itself is whole, without cracks. The smell of a ripe fruit should be delicate, vaguely reminiscent of rose petals, and spoiled has a sharp and not very good aroma. Be sure to check that the lychee does not have mold spots and small black dots on the peel, this indicates that there may be worms inside. And finally, finally, you need to shake the fruit, the fresh one should have a characteristic tapping inside.

How to eat lychee

You must first wash and remove the peel from the fruit, this can be done very quickly and easily. Put the pulp on a saucer, remove the bone and you can proceed to the test.
No less appetizing will be the tasting of dried, canned and frozen fruit. It is delicious in all its forms. And by adding fruits to a glass of champagne, you can get a wonderful drink.
When eating fruit, you should be aware of its poor combination with foods such as bananas, starch, pastries from white flour varieties. Their combined use can cause severe flatulence (gas formation).

How to store lychee

Lychee can be kept at room temperature for about three days, after which it will begin to deteriorate. But in a cool place, at a temperature of 1-7 degrees, you can store the fruit for several months. And among the Chinese, there is the following way of keeping it - in a salted form inside bamboo stalks. Also in the countries of the East, lychee is dried whole with a peel, while the taste does not deteriorate at all. Such fruits are called litchi nuts.

Composition, benefits of litchi

The calorie content of the product is quite low 65 kcal per 100 grams. Carbohydrates make up the main percentage of its energy value. Due to this, the fruit is very sweet and very satisfying. Lychee contains vitamins C, PP, K and B valuable for the human body, as well as minerals - magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, iodine and copper. Nicotinic acid, which is part of the fruit, is an active obstacle to the development of atherosclerosis. This disease has been called the "plague of the 20th century" by scientists, as it is the main cause of heart attack and stroke. It is precisely because lychee is very widespread in the countries of Southeast Asia that people are less susceptible to it. Eating fruit is useful for anemia, various cardiovascular diseases, gastritis, peptic ulcers, those who have high cholesterol, have liver problems. Litchi helps to normalize the work of the stomach and intestines, helps to reduce weight. Another "dragon's eye" is considered an excellent aphrodisiac, tones the body, and even quenches thirst.

In Eastern countries, healers use lychee in combination with other herbal medicines to fight cancer. A decoction is made from its skin, which is able to prevent the accumulation of fluid in the tissues, fight edema, and increase the tone of the human body.

One of the amazing properties of litchi is the ability to normalize blood sugar levels. To do this, it is enough to eat about 10 fruits.
Oriental medicine has found application for this fruit in the treatment of diseases of the kidneys, lungs and respiratory tract.

Lychee application

The culinary use of lychee is very diverse. It is used as a dessert, jelly, salads, fruit wine, carbonated drinks, fresh juices and delicious ice cream. They make stuffing from lychee and add it to pies, buns, pies and cakes. In addition, this fruit goes very well with fish dishes. A special sweet and sour sauce is prepared from it, which is served with meat, pates. The seeds of the fruit can be eaten roasted. And the rind of the lychee is used to make tea, crushed and mixed with black leaf. Such a drink has a magical smell, delicate taste and tones up in hot weather.

In cosmetology, an extract of the miraculous fruit is used. It is obtained only in specially designed laboratories; it is almost impossible to do this at home. But it is easy to purchase, since cosmetic companies very often include this product in their hair, face and hand skin care products. Lychee extract is very beneficial for dry, sensitive skin. It moisturizes and makes it softer. Very often, the extract is included in anti-aging creams, because it has the ability to fight the aging process and skin aging. In addition, the product is rich in antioxidants and mineral salts, which have a moisturizing, healing and soothing effect. Scientists have also proven that this extract is able to protect the skin from harmful ultraviolet rays and keep its water balance normal.

Lychee harm

This fruit can bring harm when overeating it. In this case, an upset intestine and strong gas formation occur in the body. With abundant use of litchi, a person may experience nosebleeds, sores in the mouth, as lychee irritates the mucous membrane, dry lips.

Interesting Lychee Facts

In ancient times, lychees were considered the fruit of rich and noble people, the poor only collected fruits from trees and transported them, and even the slightest sample of the fruit was punishable by death.
India is a country that called lychee the “fruit of love” and has used it as a powerful aphrodisiac since its appearance on its territory. About the exciting qualities of the “dragon's eye”, the proverb “One lychee is equal to three burning torches” was even invented. And in China there is a special wine made from the fruits of the fruit, the name of which in translation means "disturbing the soul, awakening love." In ancient times, in the east, lychee was used as a love potion.
In Thailand, there is a small northern province of Chiang Rai. The most interesting show "Lychee Festival" is held here every year. It coincides with the harvest time of the fruit. At this time, fairs are held on the streets of the town, all kinds of musical performances and even a competition for the choice of the beauty "Miss Lychee".

Lychee, the aroma of which resembles the delicate aroma of a rose, is used by perfumers to give the fragrant composition additional lightness, exoticism, some extravagance and originality. Lychee (otherwise called "lychee", "Chinese plum") is a small and slightly oblong tropical fruit with a red skin, which grows on evergreen trees from the Sapindaceae family, reaching a height of up to 15 meters. Inside the lychee fruit is a sweet, jelly-like light pulp that easily separates from the peel. In the center of the lychee is a large dark bone. Because of this combination - white flesh around a dark stone - this fruit is often called "dragon's eye" in China.

Lychee trees do not tolerate sub-zero temperatures, and in cold weather they can stop bearing fruit altogether. For this reason, lychee grows in countries with tropical and subtropical climates. Opinions about which country is the birthplace of lychee were divided between China and Vietnam - the Chinese already ate lychee in the second century BC, but at the same time there is a legend according to which this exotic fruit was presented as a gift to the Chinese emperor from one Vietnamese titled persons.

Lychee fruits are widely used in the Chinese food industry. Juices, nectars, soft drinks and even wine are prepared from it, canned, included in various salads and sauces, stuffed with various pastries. And this wonderful fruit is not only tasty, but also very useful: it contains a lot of pectin, various proteins, nicotinic acid, iron, potassium, phosphorus and magnesium, vitamin C, B vitamins. It is believed that lychee stimulates the digestive system well and helps fight atherosclerosis and anemia. It is not surprising that due to its pleasant and subtle smell, perfumers have paid attention to litchi, which increasingly include exotic, non-traditional ingredients in perfumes.

This page of the online perfume encyclopedia contains a description of the note "lychee". Enthusiasts of the perfume club "site" strive to present to your attention the most complete information about the ingredients of perfume products, including: a brief description of the notes of aromas; its origin; history of discovery and features of obtaining or synthesis; price in the market of perfumery raw materials; purposes of application in aromatic compositions and the use of this note in the creation of perfumery compositions of various classes; the most popular fragrances in which it can be evaluated and their cost; interesting reviews about those fragrances where this note is present; information about the possibility of using essential oils in aromatherapy and much more. If you can provide any additional information about the lychee note, please send it to the email address of our perfume club - . After verification, it will be published on this page.

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“She smelled of love for a hundred kilometers,
maybe even a thousand...
I flew to this smell, like a cat to valerian,
along the way, committing feats and crimes.
Rinat Valiullin

There are as many books, films, paintings devoted to the smell of a woman as to the woman herself. The authorship of all these masterpieces, of course, belongs to men. They, and only they, before loving a woman with their eyes, love her with their nose. And if a man has “sniffed” a woman, then neither Dolce, nor Gabbana, nor any other perfume “monster” will interfere with smelling her natural aroma. The smell of your woman excites, excites and drives you crazy stronger than any perfume and aphrodisiac. What it is, the smell of a woman, depriving a man of his mind, says nose-analyst (yes, there is such a profession!) Sergey Krasko.

About the sense of smell

Smell is a powerful source of information, the access code to which lies in the deep unconscious. Surrounding smells give us much more information than we can see, hear, feel. Don't believe? Ask the animals. A subtle sense of smell allows them to navigate this world better than us. Communication between a man and a woman at the level of smells is precisely related to this animal perception. Perhaps that is why a man literally sniffs out his woman and goes to her smell, like a male to the smell of a female. And no matter how much we love to carry a train of expensive and fashionable perfumes, the most attractive for a man is the natural smell of a woman's body, and so natural that a civilized society clutches at the heart.

It excites, gives a stimulus to life and literally drives a man crazy with the smell of female vaginal secrets. This natural smell of a woman is often difficult to characterize, compare with other smells. Aesthetes are looking for poetic comparisons (the smell of creamy ice cream, sea breeze, etc.), men who feel instinctively do not compare, but call a spade a spade - a woman smells like a female. And the more pronounced this smell, the more breathtaking it is for a man. Sometimes it comes to the point that men ask a woman not to wash before intimacy, or at least not to use scented hygiene products.

It sounds a bit wild, but according to research, more than 30% of men who are attracted to a not quite clean female body. Perhaps most of them live in Japan, where unwashed women's panties are an expensive fetish. But even among our compatriots there are men who are fanatical about the extremely natural smell of a woman. They sincerely do not understand why women wash "it" off their bodies.

What does a woman who drives you crazy smell like?

female! How does the "female" smell? Among the most common men's responses, five main natural women's odors are in the lead.

1. The smell of a causal place

A woman with a healthy intimate microflora has an individual "bouquet" of aromas, which, although barely perceptible to olfactory receptors, produces a bomb effect in the male brain. A man unconsciously gets addicted to this smell, like a drug, and as if an animal recognizes him among thousands of others. The smell of the vagina in the literal sense of the word can deprive a man of the ability to think clearly for a while.

1. Body odor towards the end of the cycle

A few days before the onset of menstruation, a woman smells of "pheromones", which men feel a mile away, as males smell females in heat. Animal instincts make a man driven and even insane. Smart women know how to dispose of this gift of nature.

1. The smell of yesterday's hair

Hair retains odors very well. They accumulate the fragrance of a woman. Men love to stick into women's hair scattered over the pillow and inhale the incomparable aroma of their woman with anyone. Of course, it’s good if the hair is washed and smells fresh, but a man is much more pleasant when they smell like the woman he loves.

1. Subtle smell of sweat

Sweat, no matter how blasphemous it may sound, is a powerful natural aphrodisiac. In a low concentration of active substances, it does not have a pronounced pungent odor, but contains the very “pheromones” that arouse in a man the desire to possess a woman. This subtle, barely perceptible smell of a healthy female body is associated in men with intimacy. During which sweat droplets appear on the skin, releasing the very smell of the female, from which men go crazy.

1. The smell of a young body

Unfortunately, the younger the female body, the more breathtaking its smell for a man. In the process of aging, metabolic processes slow down, which affects the formation of body odors. According to them, a man with his "animal" charm instinctively determines a woman's ability to bear children.

Lychee, or "Chinese plum" - Litchichinensis Sonn. - belongs to the Sapindaceae family. Known under such names: "liji", "laisi", "fox", "Chinese plum".

The homeland of the lychee is South China, where in ancient times it was used as a local currency. It is still valued in the tropics to this day. So, in India, for example, this fruit has the definition of "fruit of love", "giving pleasure", in China they make wonderful wine from lychee, which (translated from Chinese) "excites the soul, awakening love."

The history of this fruit dates back several thousand years: the ancient Chinese ate it already in the 2nd century BC. e. Gradually, lychee began to be cultivated in neighboring countries, and now lychee is one of the most popular fruits in Southeast Asia.
The first European mention of lychee dates back to the middle of the 17th century. From the lines of the book "History of the Great Chinese Empire" by Gonzalez de Mendoza, it follows that the lychee "resembles a plum, which never burdens the stomachs and can be eaten in huge quantities." These are the words of a famous Spanish writer who tasted forbidden and unforbidden fruits, which he told about in his book.

It is a small oval fruit with a pimply red skin. The light, almost white jelly-like pulp of the fruit easily separates from the skin and has a refreshing sweet astringent, taste with a slight vinous tinge. In the center of the fruit is one large seed, similar to the pupil of an outlandish animal. That is why the Chinese have nicknamed their favorite fruit "dragon's eye".

Lychee is common in all countries of Southeast Asia, as well as in many countries of Africa and America, but it is most widely cultivated in China, India, South Africa (especially in the provinces of Natal and Transvaal).

Lychee is a subtropical and tropical evergreen plant, up to 20 m high, characterized by increased requirements for climatic conditions, it does not tolerate frosts, as well as hot dry weather

Lychees have relatively narrow and elongated leaf blades, wavy at the edges and slightly crimped, shiny, dark green. The flowers are small, collected in inflorescences-panicles. Each panicle forms a bunch of 3-15 fruits.

Trees are characterized by slow growth, but in the end they reach considerable sizes - up to 15-20 m in height.

Due to the slow growth of trees, their yield increases within 20 years.

In the subtropics, lychee is harvested in May and June.
Ripe fruits are red in color, weighing up to 15-20 g, up to 4-4.5 cm long and up to 3-3.5 cm in diameter, oval or ovoid in shape, the peel is dense, covered with numerous tubercles, easily separated from the pulp; the pulp is white or creamy, juicy, sweet and sour, with a pleasant aroma, jelly-like consistency, melts in the mouth; in the center of the fruit is one smooth brown seed; in appearance, the fruits resemble large berries of garden strawberries. The Chinese store the lychee fruits in a salted form inside the bamboo stalks. In addition, in China, India, Vietnam and other countries, drying of lychee along with the peel is used.

Lychees are used to make traditional Chinese wine, juices, carbonated drinks, salads, canned fruits, as a filling for pies and other baked goods. This fruit goes well with fish, is used in the preparation of sweet and sour sauce, which is served with meat dishes.
There are many varieties of lychee - more than 100.

Wonderful taste and delicate aroma are not the main advantages of lychee. It contains many proteins, pectin substances and many vitamins.

In perfumery: recreated with a Givaudan captive (DEWFRUIT TEC AB 2927R Givaudan).