Mu Bie Zi

Momordica cochinchinensis, gac, is a vigorous perennial dioecious climbing vine of the Cucurbitaceae family native to southern China, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. The plant produces angled stems that ascend by unbranched tendrils, bearing alternate, deeply three- to five-lobed, broadly cordate leaves with finely serrate margins. Solitary pale-yellow flowers with a conspicuous dark center are borne in leaf axils, male and female on separate plants. The fruit is the most distinctive feature: a large ovoid berry up to fifteen centimeters long, densely covered with short soft conical spines and ripening from green through orange to brilliant red. Inside, large flattened dark-brown to black seeds about two centimeters across are embedded in a thick, deep-crimson, aril-like pulp extraordinarily rich in lycopene and carotenoids.