Thursday, October 20, 2005

Lo Han Kuo


Lo Han Kuo (also spelled luo han guo) is used as a sweetener and also has medicinal and anti-aging qualities. I was going to add this to my list, but reading up on it, I discovered the actual fruit is not very good eating, and they have to process the fruit to make it into a sweetener.

Also I could find no source for buying seeds. They say it is a difficult plant to grow, as it has very special growing requirements having been cultivated on steep mountain slopes with high humidity, little sun, but not freezing temperatures.

At the Shamanshop you can buy a Lo Han Sweetener. It contains Lo han and other sweeteners.

This company, Dragon River, sells Luo Han Guo (they spell it differently) wholesale, and they have a beautiful website.

Update: Found this place, Horizon Herbs, that sells the seeds for this plant. They call it Arhat Fruit.

1 comment:

Karen Vaughan said...

All you have to do to use it as a sweetener is to crush the dried fruit and add hot water. You can buy the dried fruit from Chinese herb stores or groceries. I spent $.88 for two which lasts a long time. Thanks for the Horizon Herbs link.