Bright reddish orange, spiky-looking fruits commonly known as gac fruits come from Momordica cochinchinensis, a climber species belonging to Cucurbitaceae family. In Malay, the fruits are referred to as Teruah. The genus Momordica is derived from the Latin word mordere meaning “to bite”, referring to the cogwheel shape of the seeds found in some species of Momordica, while species epithet cochinchinensis comes from Cochinchina, the historical name for Vietnam (de Wilde & Duyfjes, 2012). Gac fruit is native to Vietnam, where it is commonly cultivated as a food crop (Abdulqader et al., 2018). It is also widespread throughout Peninsular Malaysia, except in Melaka, Johor and the mainland of Kedah (Yong et al., 2021).
This species is dioecious, which means it requires separate male and female parts for reproduction. This climber can grow up to 20 m long (de Wilde & Duyfjes, 2012). The leaves are 3-5 palmately lobed, resembling the fingers of an open hand and are broadly ovate. When crushed, the leaves release a strong, foul odour (NParks Flora Fauna, 2026). The flower of M. cochinchinensis has 5 petals that are pale cream or soft yellow in colour with a dark spot at the base of each petal (Othman & Mohd Khairi, 2023). The petals have a fine hairy texture. The fruit is ovoid shaped with soft spines and orange-red in colour when ripe.
In Vietnam, the arils, which is the flesh around the seeds, are used to make Xoi Gac, a traditional rice dish served during special occasions such as Lunar New Year, weddings and birthdays (Abdulqader et al., 2018). In food and beverage industry, the red colour of the aril is used for food dye as a suitable substitute for synthetic colourings such as Red 40 and Carmoisine. Moreover, β-carotene, the red carotenoid colour in the gac fruit is stable in high temperatures, making it suitable to be used in bread, cake and soda bicarbonate production (Othman, 2025).
M. cochinchinensis not only serves as a food crop but also offers valuable medicinal properties. The fruit is significantly higher in carotenoids compared to tomato, where it is present in every part, such as in the pulp, peel and aril. The seeds are also significant as they contain fatty acids which offer nutritional benefits (Abdulqader et al., 2018). These nutritional contents help in treating inflammation, swelling, eye irritation and haemorrhoid according to traditional practice. In the Wimalasiri et al. (2020) study, this species shows potential as an anticancer agent, where the extracts from M. cochinchinensis aril were shown to exert a significant effect of cytotoxicity on breast cancer and melanoma cells.
In Malaysia, this species is not widely commercialised despite its many benefits. This might be due to its dioecious morphology, where reproduction can be limited. Based on the Malaysia Red List (Yong et al., 2021), M. cochinchinensis is listed in the Least Concern (LC) criteria.
