People are just starting to hear about monk fruit. What is this unusual sounding fruit and what is it used for?
Monk fruit (Siraitia grosvenorii), or luo han go, is a fruit in the gourd family, native to southern China and Thailand. Monk fruit has been used in some traditional remedies, but has become more popular because when purified, is much sweeter than table sugar, yet does not affect blood sugar.
Sweeter than table sugar? Does not affect blood sugar? There are many interesting things about monk fruit.
What is a Monk Fruit?
Monk Fruit (=luo han guo, lo han kuo, and arhat fruit) is a fruit in the gourd family (cucurbitaceae). The genus and species is Siraitia grosvenorii. Other members of this family include pumpkins, squash, watermelon, loofah, and over 900 other species.
Where does Monk Fruit come from, and what is it used for?
Monk fruit is native to and grown in southern China and Thailand. It has a history of being used is some traditional remedies. In traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), luo han guo is reportedly used in dry cough, sore throat, and constipation (Engels, 2014).
Monk Fruit grows on a vine, is perennial, and produces a round green fruit. Growth of monk fruit is reported to be somewhat complex, so most monk fruit is cultivated rather than extracted from the wild (Dharmananda).
It turns out that raw monk fruit has additional flavors and other characteristics which are unpalatable, so various purification methodologies such as drying, mashing, and other procedures are used to remove the off-flavor components.
The different purification methods will result in varying concentrations of the compound primarily responsible for the sweetness, mogroside V.
What is Mogroside V?
A mogroside is a compound that belongs to the class of Cucurbitane, a class of molecules with the same backbone of carbon and hydrogen atoms arranged in a specific ring form.
There are glucose sugar molecules attached to the curcurbitane structure; these are mogrosides. A mogroside is named by the number of glucose molecules attached using Roman numerals. So, Mogroside V has 5 molecules of glucose attached.
Aronia Guide did an article specifically on Mogrosides here:
Why is Monk Fruit sweet?
Mogroside V is the major component of the commercial sweeteners derived from monk fruit (Itkin, et al). Mogroside V is approximately 250-350 times as sweet as table sugar (sucrose).
Our perception of sweetness is likely secondary to the way the 5 glucose units of the molecule are perceived by the taste buds.
Why doesn’t Monk Fruit sweetener cause blood sugar to rise?
Mogrosides are not reported to cause an increase in blood sugar levels. This is likely related to the fact that the glucose components are cleaved off from the mogroside molecule in the large intestine. Glucose is absorbed higher up in the digestive tract (small intestine), so any glucose molecules that are present are in the large intestine, so any use of this glucose would be by the bacteria that normally live in the large intestine, not absorbed into the blood.
Conclusion
We trust that this article answered your questions on monk fruit, gave you some more helpful information than you had expected, and perhaps will lead you to further in-depth research on this interesting sweetener.
Below are our sources and links, so if you like, you can start with these and delve into as much depth as you like. Best wishes!
SOURCES
Dharmananda, Subhuti. Luo Han Guo: Sweet Fruit Used as Sugar Substitue and Medicinal Herb. January 2004. http://www.itmonline.org/arts/luohanguo.htm. Accessed 5/8/2020.
Engles,Gayle, and Brinckmann, Josef. “Luo Han Guo (Monk Fruit)“. HerbalGram: The Journal of the American Botanical Council. 103:1-5. 2014
Itkin, M, Davidovich-Rikanati, R, Cohen, S. et al. The biosynthetic pathway of the nonsugar, high-intensity sweetener mogroside V from Siraitia grosvenorii PNAS November 22, 2016 113 (47) E7619-E7628; first published November 7, 2016.
