Use of Litchi (Litchi sinensis Sonn.) Seeds in Health

This chapter describes the cultivation of litchi fruit and reviews the pharmacological properties of the litchi seed. Litchi seed is an important part of litchi fruit, accounting for 10-20% of the total fruit weight. Due to its pharmacological activities, this seed extract has been used in traditional Chinese and Indian medicines since ancient times. They were traditionally used to relieve neural pain, swelling, and other hernia-like conditions. Many other pharmacological activities of the fruit, such as hypoglycemic, anticancer, antibacterial, and antiviral, have been discovered, which could be attributed to phenolics, fatty acids, triterpenes, and proteins in the litchi seeds. Phenolic compounds have been confirmed to possess strong antioxidant activity due to the occurrence of the phenolic hydroxyl moiety. Assays have indicated that the ethanolic extract from litchi seeds has strong DPPH radical scavenging and inhibitory activity against lipid peroxidation and good antityrosinase activity. Litchi seed oil is an important source of cyclopropanoic fatty acids. The oil contains dihydrosterculic acid, cis-7,8-methylenehexadecanoic acid, cis-5,6-methylenetetradecanoic acid, and cis-3,4-methylenedodecanoic acid. They exhibit great antityrosinase, antioxidant, and anticancer activities. The combination of litchi seed extract with some commercial drugs can improve the treatment effect and facilitate the recovery of the patient.