"ndigenous to China and Thailand, monk fruit (a green, round melon-looking fruit) is grown on a vine known as siraitia grosvenorii, named for the president of the National Geographic Society in the 1930s who funded an expedition to find the fruit. In Chinese, it is called luo han guo. It has zero calories and is said to be up to 500 times sweeter than sugar.
It’s colloquially referred to as monk fruit because it was said to have first been used by monks in China in the 13th century. Today, it is still used for its medicinal properties — the fruit itself is believed to help in treating a cough and sore throat and is also believed to promote a long life (possibly because it is native to a region in China that has an usually high number of residents age 100 or more).
While monk fruit itself has been treating illness in China for thousands of years, the processed commercial version is relatively new to the market. That’s because, though sweet, monk fruit has some interfering flavors, nullifying the actual fruit’s ability to be used as a sweetener. In 1995, Procter and Gamble patented a process to eliminate the interfering tastes and make a useful sweetener from the fruit."
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