Health Benefits of Lychee Fruit

Medically Reviewed by Jabeen Begum, MD on May 02, 2024
Written by Kim Painter
7 min read

Lychee is a small round fruit with red scaly skin, sweet juicy pulp, and one large seed. It’s popular in Asia and found in many desserts, drinks, and other dishes.

‌‌Lychees have been cultivated for thousands of years in China. Today they grow in many regions including India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Australia, and the U.S. Lychee trees have been grown in Florida for more than 100 years. You can also find them in Hawaii and parts of California.

You can buy the fruit fresh, dried, and canned. It's also made into preserves, wine, and sauces.

Lychee vs. litchi

Lychee fruit is also known as litchi -- they're the same thing. The fruits are also sometimes called lychee nuts, especially when they're dried.

Is a lychee a berry?

While lychee may look like a big strawberry and grows on a tree that's a member of the soapberry family, it's not a berry. It's a type of fruit called a drupe, which is a simple fleshy fruit with a single pit containing the seed. So, it's in the same family as plums, apricots, peaches, and nectarines.

What do lychee nuts taste like?

The fresh fruit has a sweet, floral flavor. Some compare it to the smell of roses. When dried, it's more like a raisin, with a more intense, acidic sweetness.

Nutritional content

A 100-gram (3.5-ounce) serving of fresh lychee fruit contains:

  • 66 calories
  • 0.83 grams of protein
  • 0.44 grams of fat
  • 16.5 grams of carbohydrates
  • 1.3 grams of dietary fiber
  • 15.2 grams of sugar
  • 71.5 milligrams of Vitamin C

Vitamins and minerals in lychees

You can get close to your full daily recommended amount of vitamin C in one 100-gram serving of fresh lychee fruit, or about 10 fruits. It's about the same amount as you'd get by eating a medium-sized orange. Lychee fruit is also a source of folate, a B vitamin important for healthy pregnancies. It also contains small amounts of several minerals, including potassium zinc, copper, and iron.

Antioxidants in lychees

Lychee fruit contains plant compounds called polyphenols that work as antioxidants. That means they help protect your cells from damage caused by inflammation, stress, aging, and pollution. Lychees are higher in polyphenols than many common fruits, such as apples and melons.

Are lychees low-carb fruits?

No. Like most fruits, they are high in natural sugar, meaning they are mostly carbohydrates. However, like many fruits, fresh lychees also have a fairly low glycemic index, meaning they won't raise your blood sugar as much as a sugary drink or candy.

Eating lychees can help you meet your recommended intake of fruit, which is at least 1.5 to 2.5 cups a day. Eating more fruits and vegetables can help lower your risk of developing illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and some types of cancer.‌

Here are some ways lychees might be particularly good for your health:

Boosting immunity

Lychee fruit is a good source of vitamin C, which helps support your immune system and fight infection. Adults need about 75-90 milligrams of vitamin C every day. A 100-gram serving of lychee fruit gives you 71.5 milligrams.

Keeping skin healthy

The vitamin C in this tropical fruit also can help repair and maintain your skin by increasing the production of collagen. That helps heal wounds and everyday damage. Some research suggests vitamin C can help your skin recover from sun damage. It also may help prevent dry skin.

Improving liver health

Your liver plays several important functions in your body. This includes removing toxins and converting nutrients into substances your body can use. Early studies have found that extracts from lychee fruit may be able to help control liver disease.‌

Lowering cancer risks

Lychee extract has possible anti-cancer properties. It may have the potential to stop the cell growth of different cancers. But more studies are needed.

What is oligonol and what are its benefits?

Oligonol is a plant compound (polyphenol) derived from lychees. It can act as an antioxidant. The compound is typically found in dietary supplements containing lychee fruit extract and green tea extract.‌

A small 12-week study of overweight and obese women found that those who took oligonol had lower triglycerides, which are blood fats that can contribute to heart disease. They also maintained their weight, while those who took placebos gained weight.

Another study, in young men who took oligonol, found lower levels of inflammation and the stress hormone cortisol after bouts of exercise.

While oligonol is derived from lychee fruit extracts, it's altered by the manufacturing process. So the lychees you buy at the grocery store may not have the same effects.

Is lychee fruit good for weight loss?

Eating more fruits, including lychees, is a good way to boost weight loss. Lychees are low in calories, contain a lot of water, and give you some fiber, making them particularly good choices. Keep in mind that a whole fruit makes you feel fuller and gives you fewer calories than juice, and that dried fruit is higher in calories and sugar.

When eaten as part of a healthy diet, lychees typically don’t hurt your health. But it's worth considering some risks.‌

Low blood sugar

Lychee fruit has been linked to clusters of illnesses in children in India and elsewhere in South Asia. The theory is that in poorly nourished children, a compound in lychees known as hypoglycin can cause blood sugar levels to drop suddenly, leading to brain inflammation. However, some reports suggest pesticides also play a role in the outbreaks.

The illnesses appear during lychee harvest times, when children who otherwise get too little to eat might gorge on lychee fruit, including unwashed and unripe fruits. Children typically get sick, with seizures and fevers, in the morning after eating a lot of lychees but no dinner.

Allergies

Lychee fruit contains some proteins that can lead to rare allergic reactions. A few studies have reported symptoms such as:

  • Hives (urticaria)
  • Itchiness
  • Swelling of the lips and tongue
  • Difficulty breathing

Other things to watch out for 

Unripe fruit. While lychee fruits are considered safe for healthy people, it's probably not a good idea to eat a lot of unripe lychees, as they contain the highest levels of compounds linked to health problems in malnourished children.

Drug interactions. Some extracts from lychees, particularly from an inner layer of the fruit called the pericarp, might increase bleeding risks associated with drugs such as aspirin, warfarin, heparin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, and with supplements such as Ginkgo.

Diabetes concerns. Some substances in lychee fruit might have the potential to lower blood sugar. But limited research done on people has involved extracts of lychee seeds, not the fruit itself. There's no evidence that eating the fruit is either a problem or especially beneficial for people with diabetes.

 

You can find fresh lychees in some grocery stores. Asian supermarkets often sell canned and dried varieties. Canned lychees often have added sugar. Check the label to see if they’re in sugar-sweetened syrup or their own juice.

In the U.S., the lychee season begins in May and runs through the summer. If you're buying fresh lychees, choose heavy, red fruits. Don't eat the peel. To get to the edible white fruit, break the skin with your thumbnail and peel it off. Then, cut through one side of the fruit to expose the pit, which you can remove with your fingers. You can then pop the fruit in your mouth or use it in a dish.

You can refrigerate fresh lychees for 5-10 days. They can also be frozen whole with the peels on. Dried lychees can be stored for up to 1 year at room temperature.‌

Some ways to use fresh or canned lychees include:

  • Using juice (from a can) to make a cocktail
  • Stir-frying it with pork, chicken, or shrimp
  • Chopping and mixing it with avocado, lime juice, cilantro, and onion to make a salsa
  • Putting it in a salad along with pineapple chunks, melon, and other favorite fruits

If you're looking for some variety in your fruit diet, lychees are a healthy choice. They're especially high in vitamin C and beneficial plant compounds called polyphenols. Supplements made from lychee fruit extracts may have added health benefits, but more study is needed.

How many lychees should I eat in a day?

Lychees are pretty small and contain a lot of water, so you can eat quite a few without adding up a lot of calories or sugar. Eating about 10 lychees, or 100 grams, will give you 66 calories and 15 grams of sugar. The sugar in fruits doesn't have the same negative effects on your body as the sugar in processed foods.

Are lychees a superfood?

There's no official definition of superfood, which is more of a marketing term than a scientific classification. If the idea is that it's a nutrient-dense food low in calories, lychee fruit might qualify because of its high vitamin C and antioxidant levels. But nutrition experts say an overall eating pattern rich in fruits and vegetables is more important to your health than eating any one food.