A hundred grams covers a full day of vitamin C, which is more than an orange.
The floral smell is the fruit talking. A lychee with no smell has been off the tree too long.
Never eat unripe lychee on an empty stomach, and never let a child do it.
Lichi came to the Iranian fruit stall late, along the eastern trade, and it behaves like a luxury: short season, high price, eaten slowly. Under the rough pink shell is translucent white flesh around a single dark stone. The taste is floral in a way no other fruit is, which is why it turns up in sharbat and fruit salads where rose water would otherwise go.
Known to botanists as Litchi chinensis.
Chapter 2 of 15
Why It Matters
Most fruit that tastes like a dessert is mostly sugar and little else. Lychee is sweet, but it also carries a serious amount of vitamin C and a group of polyphenols (protective plant compounds) that have been studied for blood-vessel function. It earns its place on the plate twice.
Vitamin C intake drops with age, mostly because fresh fruit gets harder to buy and chew. Lychee is soft, needs no knife, and delivers more vitamin C per mouthful than almost anything else on the stall.
Vitamin C at a level few fruits reach, which matters for collagen, for iron absorption from plant food, and for wound healing.
Oligonol, the polyphenol (protective plant compounds) group named after this fruit, improved blood-vessel function in small human trials.
It was used: copper and potassium, both quietly short in a lot of modern diets. The smell alone lifts a meal, and appetite matters more than people admit in later life.
Chapter 3 of 15
Traditional Persian Perspective
Persian temperament: Warm & Moist (1st degree). Nourishing and warming. Classical texts insist on moderation because excess reads as heat.
Chinese medicine, where the fruit is oldest, reads lichi as warming and blood-building, and warns against eating too many at once — the old texts describe a heat that shows up as a sore throat or a nosebleed. Persian classification followed the same line: warm and moist, nourishing, best in moderation.
Chapter 4 of 15
Traditional Persian Perspective: In the Household
Lychee has been cultivated in southern China for more than two thousand years and was carried north to the imperial court by relay riders.
Traders moved the fruit west through India and the Gulf, where the dried form arrived long before the fresh one.
Dried lychee was sold in Persian spice markets as a sweet and a tonic, closer to a date than to the fresh fruit in both taste and use.
In Iran lichi is a guest fruit. It appears in a bowl of ice water at a summer gathering, and part of the pleasure is the peeling: the shell cracks under a thumbnail and comes off in two pieces.
Chapter 5 of 15
What It Contains
Primary compounds
Oligonol, a low-molecular-weight polyphenol (protective plant compounds) complex named after the fruit.
Epicatechin and rutin, the same flavonoid (a family of protective plant compounds) family found in tea and buckwheat.
Hypoglycin A and MCPG in the unripe fruit, the compounds behind the blood-sugar warning.
Vitamins
Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Folate
Other notable constituents
Minerals: Copper, Potassium, Phosphorus · Fiber: About 1.3 g per cup
Chapter 6 of 15
What Studies in People Show
Moderate evidence
Outbreaks of acute hypoglycaemic encephalopathy in children were linked to unripe lychee consumption without an evening meal.Moderate evidence
Higher dietary vitamin C intake was associated with lower heart and blood vessel mortality in pooled cohort studies (a study that follows a group of people over time).Moderate evidence
Early research
Oligonol from lychee improved vascular (relating to the blood vessels) function and lipid measures in small randomised trials.Emerging evidence
Chapter 7 of 15
Preparation and Kitchen Use
Peak summer, chilled, after a meal rather than on an empty stomach.
Press a thumbnail into the shell at the stem end, peel it away in two halves, and squeeze gently so the stone slips out whole.
Chill an hour before serving; leave the shells on and a bag in the fridge keeps them a few days.
Chapter 8 of 15
Preparation and Kitchen Use: Other Ways to Use It
Peel and eat cold, straight from the fridge, in the heat of the afternoon.
In the kitchen: peeled flesh dropped into a lime and mint sharbat instead of sugar syrup. Halve into a fruit salad with melon and a little rose water.
A bowl of chilled unpeeled lychee set on the table after a heavy summer meal, peeled at the table by hand.
Chapter 9 of 15
What It Goes With
Fruit:
Lime
Sharpness is what lychee lacks. A squeeze of lime over the peeled fruit fixes it.
Herb:
Mint
Cool against a warm fruit. Which is the pairing the old classification would have chosen.
Rose:
Rose Water
Both are floral, so use half of what you think. Two drops in a bowl is plenty.
Pairing:
Cantaloupe
Watery melon and perfumed lychee make a summer salad that needs no sugar.
Chapter 10 of 15
Who Should Be Careful
General caution:
It is sweet. If you're counting carbohydrate, ten lychees is a portion of fruit, not a snack you graze on.
General caution:
Very large amounts can leave a hot, dry feeling in the throat, which is exactly what the old texts described.
Allergy:
Documented lychee allergy.
Chapter 11 of 15
Medicines and Interactions
Medication interaction:
Insulin and sulfonylureas — Lychee is sweet enough to move a reading, and the unripe fruit can push blood sugar the other way. Keep portions steady and test if you're changing habits. (low concern)
Medication interaction:
Blood-pressure medicines that hold potassium — The potassium in ordinary portions is modest and needs no adjustment. Mention it only if you're eating large amounts daily in season. (low concern)
Chapter 12 of 15
Pregnancy, Children and Older Adults
General
Children:
Unripe lychee eaten in quantity on an empty stomach has caused dangerous drops in blood sugar in undernourished children. Eat ripe fruit, after food.
Children:
The stone is smooth and slippery. Take it out before giving the fruit to a small child.
Children:
Unripe fruit for children who have not eaten.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Pregnancy and breastfeeding:
Ripe lychee is an ordinary fruit in pregnancy, and the vitamin C helps iron from plant food get absorbed. Eat it with food, as everyone should.
Chapter 13 of 15
Pregnancy, Children and Older Adults: Other Groups to Consider
Children
Children:
Children love it. Two rules: take the stone out, and never give unripe lychee to a child who has not eaten a meal.
Older adults
Older adults:
Soft, sweet and needs no chewing, which makes it a genuine option when appetite and teeth are both against you. Watch the portion if diabetes is being treated.
Chapter 14 of 15
Through the Year
Spring:
Spring
Not yet. What is on the stall in spring has travelled too far.
Summer:
Summer
The whole season. Six weeks of it, and then it's gone.
Autumn:
Autumn
Late fruit turns brown at the shell and loses its scent. Buy by smell.
Winter:
Winter
Dried lychee, which is a different food — sweeter, chewier, closer to a date.
Chapter 15 of 15
Questions People Ask
How do I know if it's ripe?
Smell it. A ripe lychee is floral through the shell. Brown, dry shells with no scent mean old fruit.
Is tinned lychee any good?
It keeps the texture and loses most of the perfume and much of the vitamin C to the syrup. Fine in a fruit salad, no substitute fresh.
Can I freeze them?
Yes, peeled and stoned. They come out slushy rather than firm, which suits a drink.
