76 THE LYCHEE AND LUNGAN 



The Chinese make a wine of the lychee which is considered 

 a very great delicacy. 



Medicinal Value 



The Chinese have long recognized the curative value of the 

 lychee and the lungan for certain ailments but also report that the 

 raw fruit if taken in excess produce boils and other ailments. Some 

 work has been done on the chemical analysis of the dried lychee and 

 lungan (See Appendix) which should assist in arriving at more 

 accurate information of the real rrfedicinal and food value of these 

 fruits. More work should still be done along this line. One of the 

 most recent articles written on this interesting and important phase of 

 the lychee has been that of B. E. Read, 1 who first quotes G. Stuart's 

 Chinese Matcria Medica as follows: 



"... The fruits are dried in the sun or by artificial heat, and 

 are used as sweetmeat at feasts, and often given as presents to the 

 newly married. They are not regarded as entirely without deleterious 

 properties, and when the raw fruits are partaken of freely they are 

 said to produce feverishness and nosebleed. Partaken of in small 

 quantity or in the dried form they are thirst relieving and beneficial 

 to nutrition. But they are specially recommended in all forms of 

 gland enlargements and tumors. The seeds are regarded as anodyne 

 and are prescribed in various neuralgic disorders and in orchitis. 

 The leathery external tegument of the fruits is used in decoction in 

 the distress caused by small-pox eruption, and also in fluxes from the 

 bowels. The flowers, bark and root are employed in decoction in 

 angina and quinsy." 



A summary of Mr. Read's 1 observations on the value of the 

 lychee as a drug, in his own words is: 



" Therapeutic Activity. The diseases mentioned suggest 

 the possible presence of iodides, alkaloids or a bitter substance of 

 strong therapeutic action. The mention of feverishness and nosebleed 

 produced when the nuts are freely partaken of, together with the 

 fact that ihis plant is a member of the soapwort family would point 

 to the presence of saponin. No iodine was found present to account 

 for its alleged action on tumors and gland enlargements, such as 

 present-day treatment for goitre would suggest, and no saponin or 

 similarly active substance was detected to account for its [supposed 



1 Read, B. E., The Edible Litchi Nut (Litcfc Chinensis) in Journal 

 American Chemical Society, v. 40 no. 5, pa?e 818 (May 1918). 



