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Cultivation and Use of Gac Fruit

2016-01-20

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Gac fruit (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng) is a large, dioecious, perennial vine fruit with a spiny exterior belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family. It grows in Southern Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Northeastern Australia. Currently, it is sporadically grown along the east coast of Taiwan, mainly in the Taitung-Hualien region. The plains and lowland forests are its natural habitat in Taiwan. The fruit may be eaten both ripe as well as before maturity (except for the seeds of the mature fruit). Used mainly as a household fruit, the fruits are usually gathered in the wild, or they are grown in home gardens on simple canopy frames. The quality and output of the fruit is inconsistent. The TTDARES has worked on developing the fruit in the hopes that it can be promoted and have both quality and output increased, in turn becoming one of Taiwan’s feature crops as well as giving growers another choice of crop.


Use: Aril Juice

According to USDA studies, ripe gac fruit contains a high concentration of carotenoids, especially lycopene, for which the gac aril has a concentration of 70 times that of tomato. Since its concentration of lycopene exceeds that of all other fruits, it has been dubbed the “Fruit of Heaven”. Producing gac aril juice from ripe fruits is a great way to make profits as the aril is easily removed so that people may enjoy the appeal of this “Fruit of Heaven”.


Gac seedlings in 3-inch pots. Gac may be grown on tunnel-shaped canopy frames. Immature (green) and ripe (red-orange) gac fruits. Gac aril juice.

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