Longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.), an important subtropical fruit in the family Sapindaceae, is grown in more than 10 countries including Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Hainan. Longan is an edible drupe fruit and a source of traditional medicine with polyphenol-rich traits. Traditionally, longan leaves, flowers, fruit, and seeds all have been widely used as traditional Chinese medicines for several diseases, including leucorrhea, kidney disorders, allergies, cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, because they contain bioactive compounds such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, and polysaccharides (Lin et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2022).

• Shi Xia
• Ji Dan Ben
• Hong He Zi

          Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L.) is a popular tropical fruit known for its refreshing flavor and exotic appearance. It is native to tropical lowland rain forest of Indonesia and Malaysia, and widely cultivated throughout the archipelago and Southeast Asia, Hawaii, Central America, Africa, and China. Rambutan is trioecious, and can be classified into three groups: male trees producing only staminate flowers, hermaphroditic trees functioning as female, and hermaphroditic trees producing both hermaphrodite and female flowers or hermaphrodite and male flowers (the most common type in cultivar selections). Rambutan fruit flesh is aril, which is delicious, nutritious, and rich in carbohydrates, vitamin C, calcium, and other minerals. The fruit is usually consumed fresh or preserved in syrup and canned (Zhang et al., 2021; Zheng et al., 2022).

• Baoyan 7
• R-162

          Yellowhorn (Xanthoceras sorbifolium Bunge), the single species of genus Xanthocera (Sapindaceae), is a deciduous shrub or small tree, naturally occurring on hills and slopes in Northern China [1–3]. Yellowhorn is resistant to cold, drought, and salinity [4, 5] and is of important ecological, economic, and pharmacological value. Yellowhorn is an andromonoecious plant that has both hermaphrodite and staminate flowers, and produces capsular fruits from hermaphrodite with seeds rich in oil (50–68% of kernel), which contains 85–93% unsaturated fatty acids, being especially remarkable in nervonic acid content. The stems and fruits of yellowhorn have been used in folk medicine in Inner Mongolia for the treatment of rheumatism, gout, and enuresis in children. Moreover, different yellowhorn tissues contain multiple bioactive compounds, including triterpenoid saponins, barringenol-like triterpenoids, which have been found to possess antitumor and anti-inflammatory activities, as well as potentiality against Alzheimer disease (Liang et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2021).

• WF18
• JGXP

          Sapindus mukorossi, also known as soapberry tree, is a deciduous tree of the Sapindaceae family and is widely distributed in Southeast Asia, Japan, and southern and southwestern China. The fruit peel of S. mukorossi is rich in saponins (up to 10.76%) with physiological activities, such as antifungal, antidandruff and anti-itching activities [4, 5]. The seeds of S. mukorossi are rich in oil (up to 42.70%) with a high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids (up to 86.63%), rendering them ideal materials for developing biodiesel and coping with the energy crisis. With its richness in saponins in the peel and oil content in kernels, S. mukorossi has become an important industrial tree species that can provide multifunctional raw material for producing biological chemicals, biodiesel, and biomedicine (Xue et al., 2022).

          Balloon-vine (Cardiospermum halicacabum L.) has a wide distribution and is commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions, as well as in some temperate regions. Common in the eastern, southern and southwestern regions of China, mainly in Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan and other regions, and rare in the north. Balloon-vine mainly grows in fields, shrubs, roadsides and forest edges. In Indian traditional medicine, the extract of the Balloon-vine is often used to treat rheumatism, neurological diseases, stiffness of limbs, fever and snake bites.