The earliest document on lychee is the Western Han Dynasty Sima Xiangru's Shanglin Fugue, which was written as "Li Zhi" (离支), meaning to cut off the branches. From the Eastern Han Dynasty onwards, "离支" was written as "荔枝".

Originally, the ancients have recognized that this fruit can not leave the branches and leaves, if even cut off the branch, the freshness period will be longer. About the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "away from the branch" written as "lychee".

Litchi is distributed in southwestern, southern and southeastern China, Guangdong and southern Fujian cultivation is most prevalent. It is also cultivated in southeastern Asia, and has been recorded in Africa, the Americas and Oceania. Lychee and bananas, pineapples, longan together known as the "four fruits of the South".

Nutritional value of lychee:

1, lychee pulp contains bioactive ingredients, mainly phenolic substances and polysaccharides.

Phenols are mainly proanthocyanidins and flavonoids, with antioxidant, anti-tumor, liver protection, lipid-lowering and other effects; lychee polysaccharides are composed of glucose, mannose, galactose, arabinose, xylose, rhamnose, ribose and other monosaccharides composed of miscellaneous polysaccharides with antioxidant, immune regulation and other major activities.

2, lychee pulp accounts for 73% of the entire fruit.

100 grams of lychee pulp can provide 71 kilocalories of energy, containing 16.6 grams of carbohydrates, 2 micrograms of vitamin A, 0.1 milligrams of vitamin B1, 0.04 milligrams of vitamin B2, 41 milligrams of vitamin C, 1.1 milligrams of niacin, 2 milligrams of sodium, 24 milligrams of phosphorus and so on.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia - Litchi

Reference: People's Daily Online - Litchi? Beware of "lychee disease"