Luo Han Guo (LHG) is the sweet
fruit of the plant Momordica grosvenorii Swingle, a vine which
grows in certain regions of China – South China, mostly
in Guangxi and Hunan. The sweet character of the LHG fruit
arises from the presence of extremely sweet terpene glycoside
noncaloric compounds (called Mogrosides), which are natural
components of the fruit.
Traditional Use
The LHG fruit has a
long history of use in China and South East Asia as
a food, beverage and a traditional medicine for more
than 300 years. According to The Encyclopaedia of Traditional
Chinese Medicine (Jiangsu New Medical College, 1977),
the fruits were reported as frequently used as the main
ingredient in “cooling drinks” or “cooling
tea”, and these drinks have been used as a common
household treatment for colds, sore throats and congestion
of the lungs. The Chinese Book Fruits as Medicines (Dai
and Liu, 1986) reports that the fruits are used for
heart stroke with thirst, acute and chronic throat inflammation,
aphonia, chronic cough, constipation in the aged and
as a sugar substitute for diabetics. |
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Current Use - Natural Sweetener and Food Additives
While the LHG fruit has been consumed for
many years, it was not until recently that a process was developed
to allow production of a stable, good tasting LHG fruit juice
concentrate and Powder extracts. Botaniex’s process
removes many of the off-flavors that may be found in fresh
LHG fruit, such as earthy, beany, vegetable and/or bitter
flavor notes. As a result, a LHG concentrate is produced that
can be readily incorporated into a broad range of food and
beverage products, and the powder extracts can be used as
flavour enhancement and/or food additives. It is an ideal
substitute of artificial sweeteners and other herbal sweeteners
because of its intense sweetness but low caloric content.
Luohanguo is collected as a round green fruit that turns brown
upon drying. The sweet taste of Luohanguo 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,
I-V, and the main component is called Mogroside V, previously
known as esgoside (see chemical structure diagram below).
Other, similar compounds from Luohanguo have been labelled
siamenoside and neomogroside. The mixed Mogrosides are estimated
to be about 300 times as sweet as sugar by weight, so that
80% Mogrosides of the extracts are nearly 250 times sweeter
than sugar. The pure Mogrosides IV and V may be 400 times
as sweet as sugar by weight.
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