International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2015, 50, 567577

567

Review
Gac fruit (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng.): a rich source of
bioactive compounds and its potential health benefits
Hoang V. Chuyen,1,2 Minh H. Nguyen,1,3* Paul D. Roach,1 John B. Golding1,4 & Sophie E. Parks1,4
1
2
3
4

School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, PO Box 127, Brush Road, Ourimbah, NSW 2258, Australia
Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Tay Nguyen University, 567 Le Duan Street, Buon Ma Thuot, Daklak, Vietnam
School of Science and Health, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
NSW Department of Primary Industries, Ourimbah, NSW 2258, Australia
(Received 19 September 2014; Accepted in revised form 12 November 2014)

Summary

Gac (Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng.) is a tropical vine originating from South and South-East Asia.
Gac fruit has traditionally been used in Asia to provide red colour for cuisines and enhance visional
health. Recently, Gac fruit has emerged as a potential source of carotenoids, especially lycopene and
b-carotene. Carotenoids and other identied bioactives from this fruit including phenolics, avonoids
and trypsin inhibitors are associated with many benecial bioactivities such as antioxidant, anticancer and
provitamin A activities. In addition to the traditional utilisation, commercial products like Gac powder
and Gac oil have been manufactured as natural colourants and medicinal supplements. This paper is a
review of the scientic literature on the nutritional composition, biological activities and processing of
Gac fruit.

Keywords

Biological activity, Gac oil, Gac powder, lycopene, b-carotene.

Introduction

Gac (Momordica Cochinchinensis Spreng.) which

belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family is a tropical plant.
Gac is indigenous to countries in South and SouthEast Asia including Vietnam, China, Thailand and
India. Besides the name Gac in Vietnam, this plant is
called cochinchin gourd in English and also known
by other names in dierent countries (Table 1).
Gac is a dioecious plant, which has separate male
and female plants, and can be cultivated from seeds,
branches and roots. Gac usually owers in the summer
and the fruits become ripe approximately 9 or
10 weeks after being pollinated. Gac fruits are normally harvested from autumn to winter when the skin
turns to dark orange or red (WHO, 1990). The oily
red aril has been reported as the most nutritious portion of Gac fruit with a high amount of oil and extremely high levels of carotenoids including b-carotene
and lycopene (West & Poortvliet, 1993; Ishida et al.,
2004). Due to its high intensity red colour, Gac aril
has long been used in Asia as a natural colourant for
traditional cuisines. The seeds of Gac have also been
used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of
*Correspondent: Fax: +61-2-43494145;
e-mail: minh.nguyen@newcastle.edu.au

doi:10.1111/ijfs.12721
2014 Institute of Food Science and Technology

various diseases such as mastitis, boils and pyodermas

(Huang et al., 1999; Zhao et al., 2012).
Many recent studies have demonstrated that Gac
fruit has a number of biological activities, which might
contribute signicant benets to human health (Vuong
et al., 2002; Meng et al., 2012; Mai et al., 2013a,b). In
addition, eorts have focused on the processing of
Gac fruit to produce Gac powder and Gac oil as a
natural food additive and for medical uses. As a result,
commercial Gac products have been available on the
market such as frozen Gac aril, Gac oil capsules and
dried Gac powder. In this review, the potential of Gac
fruit as a source of bioactive compounds, especially
carotenoids, and its biological activities, processing
and utilisation are discussed.
Gac fruit anatomy

Each ripe fruit is comprised of black seeds which are

covered by an oily red membrane (aril), an orange
spongy mesocarp (pulp) and an orangered peel with
spines on the surface (Fig. 1). The edible aril is the
most valuable component of the fruit due to its high
carotenoid and fatty acid content. However, the aril
constitutes only a low proportion of the fruit weight,
whereas the pulp, peel and seeds, which make up the

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Gac fruit composition and bioactivities H. V. Chuyen et al.

Table 1 Names of Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng

Language

Name

Latin

Momordica cochinchinensis Spreng.,

Muricia Cochinchinensis Lour.
Chinese bitter cucumber, Spiny bitter
gourd, Cochinchin gourd
Mu Bie, Mu Bie Zi, Teng Tong, Tu Mu Bie
Gac, Moc Miet Tu
Bat-Khai-Du, Phak-Khao
Bhat-Karela, Gangerua, Kakrol, Kantola
Khaawz
Teruah
Buyok-buyok, Sugod-sugod

English
Chinese
Vietnamese
Thai
Hindu
Laos
Malais
Tagalog
Adapted from Lim (2012).

Figure 1 Anatomical components of Gac fruit (1. Seed, 2. Pulp,

3. Aril, 4. Peel with spines).

bulk of the fruit, are usually discarded in processing.

Kha et al. (2013a) reported that the proportion of aril
in a Gac fruit is <31% while that of pulp, peel and
seeds constitute up to 90% of the total weight of a
fruit. In a later study, Parks et al. (2013) showed a
similar result with the proportion of the aril ranging
from 6% to 31% and found a correlation between the
increase in fruit size and weight and the higher proportion of aril. Other studies also showed wide variations
in the proportion of aril in Gac fruit but that it was
not above 30% of fruit weight. The variation in the
proportion of Gac aril might be due to dierences in
variety, growing conditions and maturity of the investigated fruits (Ishida et al., 2004; Nhung et al., 2010).
Although the pulp, peel and seeds are normally discarded in Gac processing, it was reported that the pulp
and peel contain a signicant amount of carotenoids
such as b-carotene, lycopene and especially lutein, a
xanthophyll which is widely used in the treatment of
eye diseases (Kubola & Siriamornpun, 2011). Gac seed
has also been used in traditional Chinese medicine and
reported to contain multiple trypsin inhibitors, which
might contribute to its medicinal activity (Wong et al.,
2004). Consequently, it is necessary to further examine
potential applications of bioactive compounds from
these parts (pulp, peel and seed) of Gac fruit other
than the aril to avoid wasting a natural resource as
well as to resolve potential environmental issues
caused by their disposal.
Phytochemical composition of Gac fruit

Gac fruit is not only rich in b-carotene, lycopene and

essential fatty acids but also contains signicant levels
of other carotenoids and bioactive compounds such as
a-tocopherol (vitamin E), phenolic compounds and
avonoids (Ishida et al., 2004; Kubola & Siriamornpun, 2011). These compounds signicantly contribute
to the health benets of Gac fruit through their

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2015

provitamin A, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities

(Vuong et al., 2002; Innun, 2012; Mai et al., 2013a,b).
Carotenoids

The edible red aril (seed membrane) of Gac fruit

contains a very high concentration of carotenoids
including lycopene and b-carotene. It was reported that
the b-carotene content in Gac aril is ve times greater
than the levels measured in carrots, and the lycopene
content eight times greater compared to the levels measured in tomatoes (Mangels et al., 1993; Singh et al.,
2001; Aoki et al., 2002). A concentration of 892 lg g 1
fresh weight (FW) of total carotenoids was identied in
Gac aril, which includes 188 lg g 1 FW of b-carotene
(West & Poortvliet, 1993). A later study on the carotenoid composition of Gac fruit showed much higher levels
of carotenoid, which were 718 and 2227 lg g 1 FW of
b-carotene and lycopene, respectively (Ishida et al.,
2004). Other studies on Gac fruit also observed a very
high content of carotenoids in the aril but results from
the studies varied widely (Table 2). These observed variations in carotenoid level might be due to dierences in
the materials used for the studies in terms of variety,
maturity, growing conditions and storage conditions.
Therefore, eects of the above factors on the level of
carotenoids in Gac fruit need further investigation.
In addition to b-carotene and lycopene, other carotenoids like lutein, zeaxanthin and b-cryptoxanthin have
also been identied to be present at considerable levels
in Gac fruit. Aoki et al. (2002) showed concentrations
of 9 lg zeaxanthin g 1 FW and 2 lg b-cryptoxanthin g 1 FW in Gac aril and 1.6 lg zeaxanthin g 1 FW
and 3.5 lg b-cryptoxanthin g 1 FW in Gac pulp. Lutein
was found to be present in all portions of the fruit,
especially at very high concentrations in the peel and
pulp (12 480 and 1448 lg g 1 FW, respectively) (Kubola & Siriamornpun, 2011; Kha et al., 2013a). This

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Gac fruit composition and bioactivities H. V. Chuyen et al.

Table 2 Carotenoid content of Gac aril (lg g

fresh weight)

Total carotenoids

b-carotene

Lycopene

References

892
977
481

497

188
175
101
718
83
379
1600

West & Poortvliet (1993)

Vuong et al. (2002)
Aoki et al. (2002)
Ishida et al. (2004)
Vuong et al. (2006)
Nhung et al. (2010)
Kubola & Siriamornpun
(2011)
Kubola et al. (2013)

45

802
380
2227
408
3728
1400
9

observation suggests that Gac peel and pulp should be

regarded as a potential source of lutein instead of being
discarded as a waste product of Gac processing.
Oil and fatty acids

Several studies have demonstrated that the aril of Gac

contains a high concentration of oil that is composed of
several types of fatty acids. For example, fresh Gac aril
was found to contain 10.2% mg of oil, which is comparable with other oil-rich fruits like avocadoes (G
omezL
opez, 2002; Vuong et al., 2002). Kha et al. (2013b)
determined that the total oil content in Gac aril ranged
from 18% to 34% dry basis using Soxhlet extraction
with petroleum ether. In another study which used
supercritical CO2 uid extraction, a concentration of
3742% dry basis of oil was found in Gac aril (Kha
et al., 2014a). Although the extraction method might
aect the amount of extracted oil, these dierences in
the oil content of Gac aril might also be caused by variations in variety and growing conditions of the materials
as for other oil-rich fruits (G
omez-L
opez, 2002). In further studies on the fatty acid composition of Gac, the
extracted oil has been analysed by gas chromatography.
Oleic, palmitic and linoleic were identied as the predominant fatty acids in Gac aril, while stearic followed
by linoleic, oleic and palmitic were the main fatty acids
in the seeds (Ishida et al., 2004). These results are consistent with data reported by Vuong et al. (2002) and
Mai et al. (2013a,b) (Table 3). The signicant amount
of oleic and linoleic acids in the oil may potentially contribute to the benets of Gac oil for human health by
reducing LDL-cholesterol and having anti-atherogenic
eects (Pariza, 2004; Lopez-Huertas, 2010). The composition of fatty acids and high level of carotenoids in Gac
oil (Vuong & King, 2003) suggest that Gac fruit is a
good source of oil having high nutritional value.
Other bioactive compounds

Gac fruit is not only rich in carotenoids but it is also

high in other bioactive compounds, which may contribute to its benecial bioactivities.

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Table 3 Composition of main fatty acids in aril of Gac fruit (%

total fatty acid)
Palmitic
(16:0)

Stearic
(18:0)

Oleic
(18:1D9)

Linoleic
(18:2 D9,12)

References

22.0
26.432.1
17.3

7.1
3.212.2
7.5

34.1
30.833.7
59.5

31.4
27.528.7
13.98

Vuong et al. (2002)

Ishida et al. (2004)
Mai et al. (2013a,b)

Phenolic compounds have been found to be present

in Gac fruit and especially in green fruit. Bharathi
et al. (2014) recently showed that immature Gac fruit
at 25-days of age, which is regarded as a vegetable in
India, contains 26 mg of gallic acid equivalents of
total phenolics and 1.3 mg catechin equivalents of
total avonoids in 100 g of fresh fruit. A study on the
phytochemical composition of Gac fruit also reported
that the pulp of green fruits and the aril of ripe fruits
contained 181 and 90 mg g 1 dry weight (DW) of
total phenolic content, respectively (Kubola & Siriamornpun, 2011). In addition, p-hydroxybenzoic acid
and ferulic acid were determined as the major phenolic
acids present in the fruit. The highest amount of total
avonoids was found in the aril (376 mg g 1 DW) followed by the pulp of red fruits (302 mg g 1 DW) and
green fruits (285 mg g 1 DW). Among the avonoids,
apigenin and rutin were the predominant compounds
in the pulp and the aril, respectively. Antioxidant
assays on hydrophilic extracts, which do not contain
carotenoids, showed a correlation between increases in
antioxidant activity and total phenolic as well as avonoid content. This result suggests that these bioactive
groups signicantly contribute to the antioxidant
capacity of Gac fruit (Kubola & Siriamornpun, 2011).
In terms of lipophilic extracts, vitamin E (a-tocopherol) was determined in Gac oil at a concentration of
357 lg mL 1 and in Gac aril at 76 lg g 1 FW (Vuong
& King, 2003). At these levels of vitamin E, consuming foods with added Gac oil or Gac aril could signicantly contribute to the daily intake of vitamin E
(Vuong et al., 2006).
Gac seed, which has been used for more than
1000 years as a drug called mubiezhi in China, has
been found to contain trypsin inhibitors (Meng et al.,
2012). Although trypsin inhibitors may cause growthretardation in animals by inhibiting intestinal proteolysis and limiting the bioavailability of essential amino
acids (Booth et al., 1960; Khayambashi & Lyman,
1966), these compounds have been reported to possess
both in vitro and in vivo anticarcinogenic eects on
cancer cells (Kennedy & Troll, 1993). Huang et al.
(1999) isolated a trypsin inhibitor from Gac seed having a molecular weight of 3479 Da, which was found
to belong to the squash family inhibitors. In a later
study, ve more trypsin inhibitors with molecular

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Gac fruit composition and bioactivities H. V. Chuyen et al.

weights of 5100, 4800, 4400, 4100 and 3900 Da were

also determined to be present in Gac seeds (Wong
et al., 2004).
The ndings on the phytochemical composition of
Gac fruit show that its nutritional value is not only
contributed to by the high content of lycopene and bcarotene in the aril but also by signicant amounts of
other bioactive compounds including lutein, phenolics
and avonoids in the pulp and peel and trypsin inhibitors in the seeds. The presence of these valuable compounds in Gac fruit should provide positive eects on
human health due to their reported bioactivities.
Biological activities

Many biological activities associated with Gac fruit

including provitamin A, antioxidant, anticancer and
antimicrobial properties have been reported.
Provitamin A activity

Red Gac aril has been regarded as one of the best

sources of vitamin A due to its high content of b-carotene, which is a precursor for this vitamin. In Vietnam,
Gac aril and Gac oil have been traditionally added to
foods like steamed rice (xoi gac) to promote healthy
vision and assist the treatment of eye diseases caused
by the lack of vitamin A (Vo-Van-Chi, 1997). Vuong
et al. (2002) investigated the inuence of a diet supplemented with b-carotene from Gac aril on the plasma
b-carotene and retinol concentration in Vietnamese
children. After 30 days consuming steamed rice with
added Gac aril containing 3.5 mg b-carotene per serving, the plasma retinol concentration of the treated
group was signicantly higher than that of the control
group (consuming normal steamed rice) and even
higher than that of the group consuming steamed rice
supplemented with 5 mg of synthetic b-carotene. The

higher level of plasma retinol of the group treated with

Gac aril compared to the group treated with synthetic
b-carotene can be explained by the higher absorption
of b-carotene from the Gac-added rice compared to
that from the other diet. An increase of 2.11 lmol L 1
of plasma b-carotene was recorded in the Gac aril
treated group while it was 1.67 lmol L 1 in the group
treated with synthetic b-carotene. The higher bioavailability of b-carotene in the Gac-added rice might be
induced by other components in Gac fruit, including
the eects of a signicant amount of fat, which has
been reported to promote the intestinal absorption of
b-carotene in humans (Yeum & Russell, 2002; Brown
et al., 2004).
Antioxidant activity

Gac aril and products from Gac aril have been demonstrated to have very high antioxidative activity
because of their extremely high levels of carotenoids,
especially lycopene. Lycopene has been reported as
one of the most bioactive carotenoids which contributes to a variety of health benets by having anticancer, cardioprotective and anti-inammatory eects
(Bhuvaneswari & Nagini, 2005; Mordente et al., 2011;
Hazewindus et al., 2012).
There are many studies which have focused on the
antioxidant activity of Gac fruit as well as on the
changes in antioxidant activity of the processed products (Table 4). For example, Kubola & Siriamornpun
(2011) investigated the ferric-reducing antioxidant
power (FRAP) of extracts from dierent parts of Gac
fruits at dierent stages of maturity. The extract from
aril of the fully ripe fruits exhibited the highest antioxidant activity, while the lowest activity was identied
in the extract from the seeds. These results were
explained by the correlation between the antioxidant
capacity and the total phenolic content of the

Table 4 Antioxidant activity of Gac fruit and products

Material

Assay

Result

References

Ethanol extracts of Gac aril, pulp and peel

DPPH & FRAP

Kubola & Siriamornpun (2011)

Methanol extract of immature Gac fruit

DPPH & FRAP

Spray-dried Gac aril powder

Air-dried Gac aril powder

ABTS
ABTS & DPPH

Vacuum dried Gac aril

ABTS & DPPH

Aril: IC50 = 3.66 mg g 1;

FRAP: 531 lmol FeSO4 g 1
Pulp: IC50 = 2.53 mg g 1
FRAP: 466 lmol FeSO4 g 1
Peel: IC50 = 2.56 mg g 1;
FRAP: 472 lmol FeSO4 g 1
DPPH: 45.1 mg AAE/100 g
FRAP: 5.9 mg AEAC/100 g
1.4 mM TE g 1
ABTS: 0.37 mM TE g 1
DPPH: 0.33 mM TE g 1
ABTS: 162 mM TE g 1 DW
DPPH: 124 mM TE g 1 DW

Bharathi et al. (2014)

Kha et al. (2010)
Kha et al. (2011)
Mai et al. (2013a,b)

FRAP, ferric-reducing antioxidant power.

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Gac fruit composition and bioactivities H. V. Chuyen et al.

corresponding extracts. In a recent study, Bharathi

et al. (2014) studied the FRAP and DPPH radical
scavenging activities of a methanol extract from a homogenised sample of whole immature Gac fruit. The
assays showed that the antioxidant activity of the
extract from 100 g Gac fruit was equivalent to 5.8 and
45.1 mg ascorbic acid for FRAP and DPPH, respectively. The all trans-lycopene extracted from Gac aril
and its cis-isomer were also investigated for antioxidant capacity (Phan-Thi & Wache, 2014). The ABTS
assay demonstrated that 1 lmol of the all trans-lycopene had an antioxidant power equivalent to 2.4 lmol
of Trolox, and that the antioxidant activity of the
heated extract, which contained more cis-lycopene,
increased to a maximum value of 3.7 lmol Trolox
equivalents. This result suggests that the isomerisation
of lycopene from Gac fruit during extraction processes
might result in a higher antioxidant activity for the
extracts.
The antioxidant activity of a Gac aril powder, which
was prepared with 10% maltodextrin by spray drying
at 120 C to a moisture content of 4.9%, was shown
to be equivalent to 1.4 mmol Trolox per gram in an
ABTS assay (Kha et al., 2010). However, in a later
study, these authors found a much lower antioxidant
activity for Gac aril powder having a moisture content
of 6%, which was obtained by air drying (Kha et al.,
2011). To improve the retention of carotenoids and
antioxidant activity of dried Gac aril, Mai et al.
(2013a,b) produced a semi-dried Gac aril (1518%
moisture content) using a vacuum dryer at 60 C. This
semi-dried aril retained 81% and 87% of the total
antioxidant capacity of the fresh aril in the DPPH and
ABTS assays, respectively.
Anticancer activity

Due to the high content of carotenoids and phenolic

compounds of Gac fruit, several studies have been
conducted on the anticancer activity of this fruit.
These studies have demonstrated that extracts from
the whole green fruit, the aril and especially the seeds
possess signicant anticancer abilities (Table 5).
The antitumour activity of a water extract from the
whole green Gac fruit was investigated by the treatment of Balb/c mice transplanted with the colon 26-20
adenocarcinoma and HepG2 cell lines (Tien et al.,
2005). The results showed that the extract led to a signicant decrease in the proliferation of colon 26-20
and HepG2 cells and a reduction of tumour weight in
the treated mice. Furthermore, it was found that the
Gac extract inhibited the tumour growth via inducing
necrosis rather than apoptosis. Specically, the downregulation of cyclin A, Cdk2, p27waf1/Kip1 was
observed, while no decrease in p21waf1/Cip1 protein
level was recorded. In other studies on Gacavit, a

2014 Institute of Food Science and Technology

pharmaceutical product mainly comprised of Gac oil,

the anticancer activity of oil from Gac aril was also
demonstrated by its antitoxic eect on mice injected
with dioxin and the inhibition of hepatocellular carcinoma hcc development in high-risk patients (Mao
et al., 1992; Trinh, 1993).
In addition to the aril and pulp, interest in the anticancer activity has also focused on the seeds due to
the recent ndings of saponins and several trypsin
inhibitors in this fruit fraction. Ethanol extracts from
Gac seeds showed a potential anticancer activity on a
variety of cancer cell lines including lung carcinoma,
breast carcinoma, oesophageal carcinoma and melanoma cells by the signicant inhibition on the proliferation of these cell lines in a dose-dependent manner
(Zhao et al., 2010). Ethyl ester extracts from Gac seeds
also induced dierentiation and suppressed the growth
of mouse melanoma B16F1 cells and inhibited cell
proliferation signicantly even at a very low dose
(5 lg mL 1). Moreover, the high cell viability and the
increases in typical dendrite-like cellular protrusions
and elongated cells suggest that the antiproliferative
eect of the extract was caused by promoting cell differentiation rather than by inducing apoptosis (Zhao
et al., 2012). To investigate the mechanism of action
for the antiproliferative eect of Gac seed on cancer
cells, the proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle of
human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells treated with
Gac seed extract were analysed (Meng et al., 2012).
The results showed that Gac seed extract dramatically
inhibited the growth of the breast cancer cells in a
dose- and time-dependent manner. The appearance of
typical apoptotic morphology in the treated cells demonstrated that treatment with Gac seed extract induces
apoptosis in the cell line. In addition, the extract also
resulted in cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, which
can trigger the proliferation inhibition of cancer cells
(Chao et al., 2004). In a further study, Liu et al.
(2012) found two pathways by which a Gac seed ethanol extract induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in
human SGC7901 and MKN-28 gastric cancer cell
lines. The treatment with the Gac seed extract resulted
in a signicant ratio of apoptotic cells and blocked the
cells at the G0/G1 and G2/M phases. In addition, it
was demonstrated that a decrease in the level of the
nuclear enzyme PARP and an increase in the tumour
suppressor gene p53 were likely to participate in the
antiproliferative eect of the extract.
Antimicrobial activity

The antimicrobial activity of Gac aril and pulp

extracts was studied on both gram negative and positive bacteria. The water extract of the pulp exhibited
prohibition of the growth of some bacteria, while no
inhibition zone was determined in the treatment with

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Gac fruit composition and bioactivities H. V. Chuyen et al.

Table 5 Anticancer activity of Gac fruit and products

Material
Water extract of Gac fruit

Treatment

Water extract of Gac seeds

0.75 mg DW of fruit g
body weight
10100 mg L 1

Ethyl ester extract of Gac seeds

5200 lg mL 1, 72 h

Ethanol extract of Gac seeds

0.4 mg mL 1, 48 h

Ethanol extract of Gac seeds

0.8 mg mL 1, 48 h

Result

References

Reduction of 26% wet colon tumour weight

Tien et al. (2005)

Significant antiproliferative effect on lung (a549),

breast (MDA-MB-231), oesophageal (TE-13) carcinoma
cells and melanoma cell (B16)
Significant antiproliferative effects on melanoma B16F1
cells via cell differentiation
Significant inhibition on growth of human breast cancer
MDA-MB-231 cells (30% apoptotic cells)
Inhibition of 55% on cell viability of SGC7901 and 63% on
MKN-28 human gastric cancer cells

Zhao et al. (2010)

water extract of the aril. For the ethanol extracts, both

the extract from pulp and the extract from aril had
signicantly higher inhibitions on the growth of Micrococcus luteus 745 compared to the water extracts with
inhibition zone diameters of 20 and 19 mm, respectively (Innun, 2012).
The biological activities of Gac fruit illustrate that it
might contribute signicant benets for human health.
Thus, to exploit this bioactive resource more eectively, techniques for the isolation of bioactive compounds from Gac fruit as well as processes for the
preparation of Gac products should be developed.
Processing of Gac fruit

Because fresh Gac aril is very susceptible to oxidation

and degradation by environmental conditions including oxygen, light, temperature and especially microorganisms, it needs to be processed to preserve the
valuable carotenoids.
In traditional processing, fresh Gac aril is usually
exposed to sunlight until it is dry. The seeds are then
removed before the dried aril is packaged and stored
to use as a food colourant or a traditional medicine
(Vuong et al., 2002). This method might cause signicant loss of lycopene and b-carotene in the aril
through degradation caused by the direct exposure to
sunlight and oxygen. Therefore, several methods have
been developed for processing Gac fruit, which can be
classied into two major approaches: (i) dehydration
to produce dried aril powder and (ii) extraction of oil
from the aril, which contains a high concentration of
carotenoids.
Gac powder production

The eects of various drying methods and drying factors on the physiochemical properties, carotenoid content and antioxidant activity of Gac aril have been
investigated for the production of Gac aril powder.

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2015

Zhao et al. (2012)

Meng et al. (2012)
Liu et al. (2012)

Tran et al. (2008) studied the eects of enzyme pretreatments and drying methods on the degradation of
carotenoids during the production of Gac powder.
Although the enzyme treatments (Pectinex and Maxoliva) allowed the aril to be more easily separated from
the seeds, they caused signicant losses of carotenoids
in the dried aril compared to the untreated samples.
The dried Gac aril produced by freeze drying showed
the highest total carotenoid content (7577 lg g 1) followed by that obtained from vacuum drying
(5523 lg g 1), air drying (5426 lg g 1), oven drying
(4825 lg g 1) and spray drying (380 lg g 1). The
highest degradation of carotenoids in the spray drying
process was explained by the use of a very high temperature for the inlet air (200 C). For this reason,
various temperatures and the use of maltodextrin as a
drying assisting agent were investigated to reduce the
loss of carotenoids during the preparation of Gac aril
powder (Kha et al., 2010). An inlet-air temperature of
120 C and a maltodextrin concentration of 10% w/v
were found to be the most suitable conditions for
retaining the carotenoids and total antioxidant activity
of the dried powder. In a later study by these authors,
dierent temperatures for air drying were investigated
simultaneously with pretreatments for the retention of
carotenoid content and antioxidant activity of Gac aril
(Kha et al., 2011). An inverse association between the
total carotenoid content of dried Gac aril and drying
temperature was found when temperature was
increased from 40 to 80 C. Although most of the previous studies on drying Gac aril attempted to produce
Gac aril powder having a moisture content of 6% or
less, Mai et al. (2013a,b) carried out a limited drying
process, which only dehydrated Gac aril to a moisture
content of 1518%, to maintain the nutritional value
of the Gac aril. Interestingly, the optimal temperature
for reducing carotenoid loss was 60 C among the
investigated range of 4080 C instead of the lowest
temperature as reported previously by Kha et al.
(2011). Carotenoids were more protected when the aril

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Gac fruit composition and bioactivities H. V. Chuyen et al.

was dried at 60 C because the drying time (5 h) was

signicantly shorter than that of drying at 40 and
50 C (1012 h).
Because of the signicant loss of carotenoids during
the drying of Gac aril, a number of pretreatments and
antioxidative agents have been investigated for protection of these carotenoids. For example, presoaking
Gac aril with ascorbic acid or sodium bisulphite prior
to drying signicantly reduced the loss of carotenoids
and antioxidant power of dried Gac aril prepared by
hot air drying (Kha et al., 2011). In addition, blanching in citric acid and steaming exhibited a protective
eect on carotenoids when drying at 60 C was used
to produce Gac aril powder having a moisture content
of 6% (Dien et al., 2013). The blanching of Gac aril
for 2 min at 80 C with 0.04% citric acid and the
steaming at 100 C for 6 min prior to drying resulted
in dried powders with 8.6% and 24.0% higher carotenoid content than the untreated sample, respectively.
The use of a maltodextringelatin mixture (1:1) in this
study as a drying carrier also led to a remarkable protection against carotenoid loss. The obtained dried
Gac powder had a 28.4% higher carotenoid content
compared to the control. Other antioxidant agents
including vitamin C and vitamin E were then investigated for their protective eects on the stability of
b-carotene and lycopene during the drying of Gac aril
(Minh & Dao, 2013). The addition of these vitamins
into the drying carrier at a concentration of 0.2%
resulted in a signicant prevention of carotenoid loss
in Gac aril during the drying process. These results
suggest that pretreatments and drying assisting agents
might be applied to achieve better retention of carotenoids in dried Gac aril.
Gac oil production

As Gac aril has been shown to contain high levels of

carotenoid-rich oil, a variety of processes to extract oil
from the aril have been reported. The use of a manual
single hydraulic press (1 kg Gac aril per batch), which
can be used by homemakers, was investigated for the
pressing of Gac oil (Vuong & King, 2003). The pressing of 5-min steamed aril produced 1 L of oil from
100 kg of ripe Gac fruit. The obtained oil was
reported to have very high total carotenoid content
(5770 mg L 1), which was comprised of 2710, 3020
and 334 mg L 1 of b-carotene, lycopene and atocopherol, respectively. In addition, the Gac oil was
highly accepted by the local famers in Vietnam for
daily consumption.
To improve the extraction yield of oil from the aril,
treatments of aril with microwaves (630W, 65 min)
and steam (20 min) prior to the use of hydraulic pressing were investigated (Kha et al., 2013a). A very high
extraction eciency of oil (93%) was achieved from

2014 Institute of Food Science and Technology

pressing (170 kg cm 2) of the treated Gac aril, which

contained 414 and 140 mg L 1 of lycopene and b-carotene, respectively. The levels of these carotenoids in
Gac oil were then signicantly increased to
511 mg L 1 for lycopene and 174 mg L 1 for b-carotene by pressing of the microwave-dried aril instead of
air-dried aril (Kha et al., 2014b).
In addition to the use of pressing, the extraction of
Gac oil by dierent solvents has been studied. Extractions using a chloroform:methanol mixture, petroleum
ether and hexane were studied for improvement of
lycopene and b-carotene content in the extracted Gac
oil (Kubola et al., 2013). The use of dierent solvents
resulted in signicantly dierent amounts of carotenoids in the extracted oils. The oil extracted with the
mixture of chloroform:methanol (2:1) contained the
highest lycopene and b-carotene concentrations (0.49
and 1.18 mg g 1, respectively), while the hexaneextracted oil contained the lowest levels of these carotenoids (0.21 and 0.12 mg g 1, respectively). In this
study, the application of hot air, low relative humidity
air and far-infrared irradiation for the drying of Gac
aril prior to the solvent extraction also led to remarkable increases in the carotenoid content of the
extracted oil. While hot air drying resulted in the highest increase in lycopene content (166%), the highest
increase in b-carotene was obtained from the drying
using far-infrared irradiation (Kubola et al., 2013).
In an attempt to extract Gac oil using water instead
of organic solvents, various enzymatic treatments and
the optimisation of the extraction factors were investigated (Mai et al., 2013a,b). In this study, dried Gac
aril was ground and then mixed with water in a beaker. The mixture was then added with enzymes before
being incubated with stirring. Finally, the mixture was
centrifuged and dried to remove water and obtain the
oil. Among the treatments with protease, cellulase,
pectinase and a-amylase individually or in combination at dierent ratios, the combination of all enzymes
at the ratio 1:1:1:1 resulted in the highest oil extraction
yield (62.4%) with the highest carotenoid content
(4.25 mg g 1). This result was six times higher than
the oil yield obtained from the control sample (10%,
no enzyme treatment), and it was explained by the
breaking of the Gac aril cell wall seen by microscope
observation. The optimal extraction conditions were
determined as 14.6% (v/w) for the enzymes, 58 C for
the extraction temperature, 127 min for the incubation
time and 162 rpm for the stirring. The extraction
eciency and the total carotenoid content from the
optimal conditions were 79.5% and 5.3 mg g 1,
respectively. Recently, supercritical carbon dioxide
uid has been investigated for the extraction of oil
from Gac aril. Eects of enzymatic treatments, drying
conditions, particle sizes of the Gac aril powder after
grinding and extraction conditions on oil extraction

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Gac fruit composition and bioactivities H. V. Chuyen et al.

eciency were studied (Kha et al., 2014a). The pretreatments of the Gac aril and extraction time, temperature and pressure signicantly inuenced the oil
extraction yield as well as the carotenoid level of the
oil. The highest extraction eciency of oil (95%) was
achieved from the extraction at 200 bar, 50 C for
120 min of the aril powder having a particle size of
0.45 mm, which was treated with 0.1% pectinase prior
to being dried at 50 C.
Although lycopene and b-carotene are the most
important bioactive compounds in Gac oil, they are
very susceptible to storage conditions and can degrade
rapidly during storage (Vuong & King, 2003). For this
reason, the protection of the bioactive compounds in
Gac oil has been studied. Kha and co-authors (2014c,
d) recently investigated the encapsulation of Gac oil
by spray drying. To improve the encapsulation eciency of the oil, the spraying conditions and the wall
materials were optimised. The use of a proteinpolysaccharide matrix as wall material at 29.5% (v/v) relative to the Gac oil, for the microencapsulation by
spray drying with inlet and outlet temperatures of 154
and 80 C, respectively, was found as the optimal process for the production of encapsulated Gac oil powder. In the powder produced by the above optimal
conditions, 92%, 80% and 74% of oil, b-carotene and
lycopene in the oil were encapsulated by the wall
matrix. The high encapsulation eciencies of oil and
the carotenoids suggest that the oxidation of Gac oil
and carotenoid loss during storage can be reduced signicantly by protection from the storage environment.
In addition, the encapsulated powder showed an
attractive orangered colour and high solubility in
water, which makes the powder easy to incorporate
into various foods (Kha et al., 2014c,d).
The results from the processing of Gac oil and Gac
powder suggest that Gac fruit is a potential material
for producing high-quality commercial products for
food and medicinal uses. However, in addition to the
development of products from Gac aril, the processing
of the pulp, peel and seed should also be considered to
further exploit the biological potential of compounds
in these sources.
Storage of Gac fruit and Gac products

The most valuable part of Gac fruit is the red aril due
to its high concentration of carotenoids, which are
very susceptible to degradation by environmental and
storage conditions such as light, oxygen and temperature. Thus, one of the important issues for the storage
of Gac products is the prevention of carotenoid loss.
Because the harvesting period of Gac fruit is usually
from October to the next February in Vietnam, farmers
usually sun-dry the Gac aril and store it in tight containers under the absence of light for year round consump-

International Journal of Food Science and Technology 2015

tion. Recently, as the popularity of fridge-freezer units

in households has increased, Gac aril is separated from
the seeds, divided and packed into serving amounts and
then stored in the freezer until being used. The frozen
Gac aril can maintain its palatability from the end of a
harvesting season to the beginning of the next or even
for up to 1 year.
Although Gac fruit has been reported as one of the
richest carotenoid sources, there has been a limited
number of investigations into the eects of storage on
the nutritional quality and carotenoid content of Gac
fruit and its products. In a study on the storage of
fresh Gac fruit, changes in the carotenoid content of
Gac fruit were investigated for 2 weeks under ambient
conditions (Nhung et al., 2010). After 1 week of storage, the lycopene content signicantly increased in the
fruits at the green maturity stage, while b-carotene
increased in both green and ripe fruits. However, a
remarkable decline in the carotenoids was found after
2 weeks of storage at ambient temperatures with 2.7and 9-fold reductions seen for lycopene and b-carotene, respectively. The storage of Gac oil was also
investigated in this study at dierent temperatures with
and without antioxidant treatments. The storage of
Gac oil at 45 and 60 C signicantly increased the degradation of both lycopene and b-carotene compared to
storage at 5 C and at the ambient temperature
(2025 C). The addition of 0.02% (w/w) butylated
hydroxytoluene (BHT) into the oil and the use of a
nitrogen stream to exclude oxygen lowered carotenoid
loss during storage at 5 C and at the ambient temperature but had no eects during storage at the higher
temperatures (Nhung et al., 2010). In an earlier study,
Gac oil obtained from an extraction by a manual press
was stored under ambient conditions in the local farmers kitchens for 3 months. Although 45% of the total
carotenoid was lost during storage, the oil still provided 3190 mg L 1 of carotenoids and was highly
accepted by the local farmers for making the glutinous
rice dish, mixing with vegetable dishes and soups, and
even for skin care (Vuong & King, 2003).
For the storage of Gac powder, dried Gac powder
was stored in vacuum packages under the absence of
light at 5, 25 and 37 C to examine the inuence of
temperature on the stability of the carotenoids in the
powder (Tran et al., 2008). The results showed that
the loss of total carotenoids was signicantly decreased
at low storage temperatures. The powder stored at 5,
25 and 37 C retained 75%, 70% and 46% of its total
carotenoids after 4 months, respectively. Similarly, for
the storage of semi-dried aril (1518% moisture content), only a negligible loss of the carotenoids was
observed after 3 weeks in a refrigerator, and the level
of microorganisms remained within the accepted limit
for 21 weeks (Mai et al., 2013a,b). The addition of antioxidative agents during the drying of Gac aril not

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Gac fruit composition and bioactivities H. V. Chuyen et al.

only prevented carotenoid loss in the processed Gac

powder but also signicantly protected the carotenoids
during the storage of the product (Minh & Dao,
2013). Specically, Gac powder dried with supplements
of vitamin C or vitamin E maintained 70% of its carotenoids after 3 months of storage at 10 C in the
absence of light and oxygen.
These studies demonstrate that carotenoids in Gac
fruit and its products are very easily degraded by the
impact of storage conditions including light, temperature and oxygen. Therefore, further studies need to
focus on the inuence of these factors on Gac products so that a better preservation of their carotenoids
can be achieved.
Utilisation of Gac fruit

Gac aril has long been used by Asian people as a natural

colour for traditional foods. In Vietnam, the aril is used
widely to provide red colour, a lustrous appearance and
an oil-rich taste for the glutinous steamed rice dish (xoi
gac), a traditional food of Vietnamese people for important occasions such as weddings and the Lunar New
Year. In addition to the use in xoi gac, Gac aril is added
into other kinds of foods such as stir-fried dishes and
soups to improve their appearance as well as to provide
a nutritional supplement for the foods. The aril and the
oil obtained from the aril are also used as supplements
for the treatment of dry eyes (xerophthalmia) and night
blindness, which are caused by the lack of vitamin A, as
well as for promoting healthy vision (Vo-Van-Chi,
1997). Recently, commercial Gac products such as frozen Gac aril, Gac oil and dried Gac aril powder have
been introduced into the market for food, medicinal and
cosmetic uses.
In general, only the red aril of Gac fruit is used for
food, medicine and cosmetics, while the other parts
including seeds, pulp and peel are discarded. The pulp
and the peel removed from the processing of Gac are
usually treated to produce organic fertiliser or used for
feeding cattle. The seeds from Gac have been used as a
traditional Chinese medicine called mubiezhi for the
treatment of cancers in the Inner Mongolian tribe areas
and various other diseases such as mastitis, boils and
pyodermas (Huang et al., 1999; Zhao et al., 2012).
Although Gac fruit is mostly consumed at the fully ripe
stage, the green fruit is commonly used as a vegetable
for cooking in Thailand and India. At the immature
stage, the fruit meat, which has a avour similar to
papaya, is consumed with chilli paste after being boiled
or used in curries (Kubola & Siriamornpun, 2011).
Conclusion

Gac fruit, which has been used in traditional Asian

cuisine and medicine, has been demonstrated to

2014 Institute of Food Science and Technology

contain very high levels of benecial carotenoids

including lycopene, b-carotene and lutein. In recent
decades, this fruit has emerged as a potential material
for the functional food industry due to its biological
activities and the success of the presently available
products. However, there are still many obstacles,
which need to be resolved through research for the
development of the Gac processing industry to be
assured. For example, inconsistent and sometimes conicting data on the carotenoid content and the bioactivity of Gac fruit have been reported. Although
several bioactivities have been reported for Gac fruit,
there has been no study on the contribution of its individual bioactive compounds to these activities. In addition, after the removal of the aril, the disposal of Gac
pulp and peel, which constitute the major proportion
of the whole fruit by weight and which have a signicant content of the carotenoids, especially lutein, needs
to be addressed. This resource should be more eectively utilised to avoid potential environmental issues
and to prevent the wasting of an important source for
the carotenoids. If the above problems are resolved
successfully and economically, Gac fruit will become
one of the most important carotenoid-rich sources for
the food and medicinal industries.
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