Fack-cow | ฟักข้าว | Momordica cochinchinensis
Family: Cucurbitaceae | Genus: Momordica
You will find the vines of the Gac fruit near the 'the Food Forest Kitchen' restaurant of Eco-Logic Thailand and at the hydro-aquaponic greenhouse of the Thai Child Development Foundation
Gac Fruit is also known as Baby Jackfruit, Chinese Bitter Cucumber, Chinese Cucumber, Cochinchin Gourd, Giant Spine Gourd, Spiny Bitter Cucumber, Spiny Bitter Gourd and Sweet Gourd.
Gac Fruit is a type of perennial melon, it is notable for its orange-reddish color resulting from its rich content of beta-carotene and lycopene. Gấc grows as dioecious vines, meaning its male and female flowers are on separate plants, producing flowers typically 5–10 centimeter in length. Its vines can extend to 20 meter long, and its flowers blooms once a year, single or in bundle, around two to three months after the vines are planted. In one season, a plant can produce from 30 to 60 fruits.
Gac has been used as food and traditional medicine. Its use as medicine has been dated back to over 1200 years ago in China and Vietnam. Due to the high contents of beta-carotene and lycopene, extracts from the fruit's arils are used to manufacture dietary supplements or are sometimes mixed into beverages.
It has an extremely short season, only two months long, In Paksong you will find the Gac fruit in December and January
THE VINE
Gac fruit is a perennial twining, dioecious vine about 6 meters long.
The plant has an angular robust, glabrous stem and tuberous roots. Tendrils are simple and stout.
Plants survive for 10–12 years.
THE LEAVES
Leaves are fairly large, alternate and deeply 3–5 palmately lobed with faintly dentate margins, cordate bases, glabrous, dark green above and lighter green below and petiolated.
THE FLOWERS
Flowers are monoecious, unisexual, solitary in leaf axils, white to ivory yellow. Female flowers have small bracts and a scabrous ovary while male flowers have broad reniform bracts, calyx tube is short with triangular lobes, and corolla has 5 yellow, ovoid-oblong petals and stamens.
Flowering normally takes place from June to September.
THE FRUIT
Gac is a bright-red fruit that grows as large as a cantaloupe and covered with short spines, Fruit are usually large, 13 cm in length and 10 cm in diameter, ovoid, globose to oval, with sharp pointed protuberances and a rigid peduncle. They are green when young turning orangey-red to dark red when mature and ripe.
Each fruit weighs between 600 to 2500 gram.
Normally there are spines on the outside of the fruit and the interior is made of a fleshy pulp and seeds. The morphology of Gac fruit from outside to inside is a thick yellow mesocarp, followed by a red aril and a yellow core in the middle. The seeds inside the arils are flat, hard and brown or black.
CULINARY USES
The Fruit has mild taste just like avocado.
The juicy inner pulp of the Gac may be eaten raw on its own or blended with other fruits to make a juice.
Itcan be cooked with sticky rice, in which the fruit’s deep red color and mildly fruity flavor is extracted.
The young shoots of the vines are also eaten as a vegetable, simply steamed and paired with nam phrik (chili-based Thai condiment).
An unconventional yet delicious way to enjoy the health benefits of Gac is to combine it with tomato sauce and use on a pizza or with pasta.
NUTRITION
Gac fruit is a good source of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Consuming 100 gram of gac fruit offers 17.4 g of Carbohydrate, 1.6 g of Total dietary Fiber, 2.1 g of Protein, 36 mg of Calcium, 0.3 g of Total Fat and 0.9 g of Ash.
TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL USE
NOTE: please take advice from a doctor if you are planning to use herbal medicine.
Traditionally, the fruit has been used for the treatment of certain diseases such as diabetes and eye disorders.
INTO THE WILD: a down to earth experience
For guests and visitors to Paksong we organize weekly tours "The Edible Forest" and Foraging weekends: Into the Wild. We work with local guides to take you in the jungle of Paksong. After foraging, we will cook a meal with the ingredients, using bamboo together with you!
Come and join and learn about the abundance of food that nature gives us!
INTO THE WILD!
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