Medicinal Herbs

Gac Fruit Extract

Momordica cochinchinensis

Gac (Momordica cochinchinensis) is a climbing vine that withers each year and shoots again from the rootstock in spring, its jointed stems carrying large lobed leaves, dark green and rough to the touch. Pale yellow male and female flowers, borne separately, open in April and May, and the oval fruit, 15 to 20cm long and covered in soft red spines, is picked from August to the following February. Inside, rows of seeds sit wrapped in a blood-red membrane, used fresh to colour glutinous rice for xôi gấc, or dried and pressed for its red oil. It grows wild and is cultivated throughout Vietnam, most of all in the north.