Lychee is a kind of first-class fruit, also known as "Lizhi", and has the reputation of "Lingnan Good Fruit" in Lingnan area. Along with bananas, pineapples, and longans, it is known as the "Four Great Fruits of the Southern Kingdom".
Lychee is an evergreen tree fruit tree in the family Sapindaceae, which has strong adaptability, beautiful tree shape, green leaf color, long life span, and high economic value. Lychee originated in southern China and has a long history of cultivation, and is now also introduced and cultivated in some foreign countries, but compared with China, its cultivation area and varieties are far behind.
China is the country with the most extensive cultivation area and the largest production of lychee in the world, and the main production areas are distributed in the southern, southwestern and southeastern regions. Among them, Guangdong is the most planted, followed by Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Chongqing provinces. In addition, a small amount of cultivation is also found in the southern part of Zhejiang, and has formed an industrial advantage of "the world's lychees look at China, and China's lychees look at Guangdong".
There are many varieties of lychee, such as Feizixiao, glutinous rice ball, cinnamon, black leaf, round branch, Huaizhi, white sugar poppy, March red, white wax, crystal ball, hanging green, Xianjin Feng, Zhuangyuan red, Yuan red, jade purse, Guanyin green, chicken mouth li, purple Niangxi, ice li, seedless lychee, Lingshan fragrant li, Jiangkou li, osmanthus fragrance, orchid bamboo, Chen Zi, big cloves, Dazao, with green, etc.
According to the different ripening periods, lychees can be divided into three varieties: early-ripening, medium-ripening and late-ripening. Among them, late-maturing varieties are the most common. The early-maturing varieties include March Red, Feizixiao, White Sugar Poppy, White Wax, Osmanthus Xiang, Dazao and Round Branch. Medium-ripe varieties include black leaves, champion red, etc.; The late-maturing varieties include Guiwei, Glutinous Rice Cake, Huaizhi, Hanging Green, Xianjinfeng, Shangshuhuai, Red Hydrangea, Jianjiang Red Glutinous, Lingfeng Nuo, Big Clove, Seedless Lychee, Chicken Mouth Lily, Zi Niangxi, Chen Zi, Ma Guili and Jiangkou Li.
Lychee has a shorter time to market than other fruits, mainly from May to July. However, the shelf life of lychee is very short and not suitable for long-distance transportation, so how to extend the shelf life of lychee has become one of the problems in the development of the litchi industry.
Lychee fruit is rich in juice, sweet and delicious in taste, rich in sugar, vitamin C, folic acid, protein, fat and other nutrients. It has the effects of strengthening the spleen, regulating qi and replenishing blood, relieving pain and improving sleep, and has a variety of nutritional and medicinal values. In addition to being eaten raw, lychees can also be processed into a variety of value-added products such as canned food, fruit juice, fruit wine, and dried lychees.
The effects and functions of lychee include blood tonic, beauty and beauty, digestion aid, antioxidant, blood pressure reduction, warmth and qi, pain relief and fever relief. It is rich in iron, which can promote red blood cell production and improve anemia. The active substances in lychee are able to nourish ** and make it more delicate and smooth. Lychee also contains lychein, which helps relieve stomach discomfort and promote appetite and digestive juice secretion. In addition, a variety of active ingredients in lychee can scavenge free radicals in the body, improve immunity, and prevent the occurrence of diseases. Lycheetin can help blood vessels dilate and lower blood pressure, which is helpful for patients with high blood pressure. In traditional Chinese medicine, lychee is widely used to assist in a variety of diseases.
Lychee is easy to cause irritation, and symptoms such as red and swollen eyes, erosion at the corners of the mouth, yellow urine, toothache and sore throat appear. In order to avoid the phenomenon of fire, you can try the following practices when eating lychees:
1.Before eating lychees, drink salt water, prunella herb herbal tea, or drink winter melon soup, mung bean soup and other drinks that have the effect of reducing fire. At the same time, when eating lychees, drink more salt water, or add 20-30 grams of raw ground to make lean meat or pork bone soup, or boil water with dates, which can prevent fire.
2.When eating lychees, a thin layer of white film after peeling off the husk and the flesh are eaten together to avoid getting hot. The membrane is a little astringent, and when you chew the flesh, you will feel the sweet taste. After eating the lychee, eat the white pedicle part of the lychee with the white pedicle of the pulp, and eat 2-3 pieces in a row, which can also effectively prevent fire.
3.Boil water with fresh lychee leaves and lychee shells to drink can also prevent eating lychees from causing fire.
4.People often soak lychees in salted water for about half an hour before eating them, and then eat them, which helps to reduce the fire. You can also drink some heat-clearing and fire-reducing beverages, such as chrysanthemum tea, after eating lychees.
5.Putting lychees in ice water, sinking in wells, or soaking them in a cold spring overnight before eating them can reduce the likelihood of getting hot and replenish body hydration.
6.Reasonably control the intake of lychees, especially in summer, due to the hot nature of lychees, the number of lychees should generally not exceed 10 at a time.
Here are some suggestions for picking lychees:
Look at the color: The color of fresh lychee is not completely bright red, and some dark red and green mixed skin is fresh lychee.
Look at the appearance: the head of the ripe lychee is relatively sharp, the "nails" on the epidermis are dense, the cracks are flat, and the suture line is obvious.
Touch the shell: The fresh lychee shell feels firm and elastic to the touch.
Smell: Fresh lychees will smell fragrant, and stale lychees may have a wine or sour taste.
Observe the flesh: the flesh of the fresh lychee is crystal clear and elastic, and the juice is fragrant.