Health Effect of Longan and Its Present Situation and Prospect of Healthy Food Development
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Abstract:
Longan is a typical representative of tropical fruit in China. It plays an important role in supporting the development of agricultural economy of Guangdong province. The tonic effects of longan, such as “appetizing and invigorating spleen, tonifying deficiency and replenishing intelligence", were recorded in traditional Chinese medical books. Developing healthy food with longan is an effective way to promote the development of longan industry. In this paper, the bioactive ingredients and biological activities of longan, as well as the healthy food with longan were reviewed. Polysaccharide is the most widely studied active ingredient in longan. There have been in-depth and systematic researches on its structural characteristics and immune regulation mechanism. However, the understanding of other active ingredients and bioactive mechanism in longan are still very limited. Up to now, there are 133 functional foods with longan in the market, which belong to the second generation of functional food. Meanwhile, the diversified and functional foods with longan need to be further expanded. Creating special processing technology of longan is an important way to guide diversified processing of longan and promote the development of longan industry.
