A different kind of sweet

In the wet, green foothills that surround Guilin, one man has dedicated much of his life to cultivating a strange 'fruit', a natural sweetener that is wowing nutritionists worldwide. Fan Zhen goes into the hills of Yongfu county for the story.

As Fan Tianhuan offers his guests a round of light amber tea, he proudly explains that the infusion is made from the best quality Arhat fruit, or luohan guo, and as the guests take in the sweet scent of the tea, he tells them how he started growing it 37 years ago.

"My life has been interwoven with luohan guo since the first time I helped my father in the field in 1976," the 59-year-old suntanned farmer says. "Since it has so many health benefits, I believe it is my duty to introduce it to as many people as possible."

To that end, Fan has succeeded. He is now the largest producer of luohan guo in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Yongfu county near Guilin has more than 23 square kilometer of land planted with the vine, and Longjiang town where Fan is based is known as the "home of the Arhat fruit".

Fan says Longjiang produces 70 percent of the yearly output of 200 million fruits in the county.

The Arhat fruit, which is actually a gourd, is also known as monk's fruit and the name can be traced back through history.

As the story goes, during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), Guilin was one of the most important Buddhist retreats in China. The fruit, long treasured for its health benefits, was named after a group of Buddhist monks who, after a life of contemplation and meditation, finally achieved enlightenment. From then on, they have been known as luohan, or arhats.

The reason the luohan guo is now hailed by the health conscious is that the extract of the fruit is almost 300 times sweeter than sugar and holds very little calories. It is a natural sugar substitute.

In traditional Chinese pharmacology, the fruit is known for its ability to balance inner heat. Better than that, it is also used in herbal cough medicines, especially for chronic coughs, throat inflammations and constipation.

As an infusion, it quenches thirst, and in high summer, it is also used to treat heat stroke.

"It is a good sugar substitute in drinks, cakes, candies - and is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat diabetes and obesity," Fan says. "We often use it to brew herbal teas or Chinese tonic soups."

Although Longjiang town in Yongfu is now known for its fresh and dried Arhat fruits, it was not so when Fan started taking the lead in its mass cultivation in the early 1990s. Things were pretty rough at first.

It was all about keeping quality and standards.

"I invented this as a standard measurement," Fan picks up a specially made ruler with a row of different sized holes on it. The idea is to fit the fruit into the holes to categorize them into small, medium, large and premium sizes.

Villagers who had joined the plantation cooperative were not happy when Fan insisted that they should sell only those fruits that reached "ruler standards". In the first few years, almost 40 percent of the fruits did not make the grade.

"They all said I was creating trouble for myself," Fan says. "But, I believe the only way to push this healthy fruit to a wider audience is to ensure quality by detailing the standards in terms of production and processing."

As he strived for higher standards, Fan came up against another wall - the disappearing art of drying the fruit properly so it can be kept. Fresh luohan guo is hard to store, so the fruit is almost always sold dried.

The traditional way of preserving the fruit was to dry it in an oven, a process that often resulted in a bitter and astringent fruit, losing its original sweetness.

Fan went to Beijing, Yulin and Nanning to learn from the specialists, asking them how to dehydrate fruit that had more than 72 percent moisture content.

In 2007, after three years of trial and error in his self-built workshop, Fan and his team finally developed a new technique of drying the fruit that retained all its flavor and nutrition. Hot air controlled at 45 C to 65 C is used to dry the fruit over about 10 days.

"By using this method, the fruit retains its golden-brown color and you can see it is still covered by its natural fuzz. The inside of the fruit remains crisp and light instead of being scorched. The most important thing, the nutrition is preserved," Fan says.

After making sure he had a good product, Fan turned to packaging.

He realized a proper image was important and he had the fruit neatly packed according to size and quality, using the beautiful Guilin scenery and images of the fruit for his box designs.

Then he went on the road, attending all kinds of agricultural fairs around China collecting orders, which he would send back to his fellow villagers.

"My own company is but one brick in the whole construction. To build a mature industry, we require farmers, companies and distribution bases," Fan says. "It all takes time."

Fan's efforts have resulted in the wider distribution and recognition of this little brown furry gourd.

It is now sold to more than 20 countries and regions including Japan and America. The annual yield in the village has increased from 2 million to 50 million while the whole town's production has shot up to 1,200 million.

This year, Fan plans to enhance the fruit's productivity.

"If you want to make progress, you have to innovate," Fan says as he surveys the luxuriant patches of young vines set amidst the misty hills.

"It's all sweet."

Contact the writer at fanzhen@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 11/01/2013 page22)