Mangosteen, How To Enjoy The Benefits Of The Queen Of Fruits

The mangosteen fruit, that is native to Southeast Asia and South America, has been often called the Queen of Fruits. Many believe that Queen Victoria was responsible for this name, but others believe that an explorer by the name of David Fairchild was the person credited with coining this name.

The benefits of the mangosteen have been known for centuries and have been recited in many articles circulating the internet. But for the benefit of those who are not aware of the benefits of the mangosteen, I will talk about them here. But what I really intend to accomplish here, is to show you how you can benefit from this miraculous fruit, without traveling to Southeast Asia or South America. I live in Colombia, South America where the fruit is plentiful, therefore I can purchase and consume the fruit easily. I realize that others cannot do so, therefore I will guide you to a reasonable alternative without sacrificing the benefits of this miracle fruit. I will also talk a little about some of the products available on the market, and lastly I will show you how to extract the benefits from the fruit and consume it on a regular basis.

The mangosteen is primarily grown in two regions of the world, South East Asia and South America (Colombia). Many have discovered the mangosteen fruit when traveling to Southeast Asia. They always make remarks regarding the unique and delicious flavor of the fruit which has a sweet but mildly tart flavor.

The mangosteen tree grows in tropical areas. The trees reach a height of 20 to 80 feet. The trees can yield anywhere from 500 to 5,000 fruits and the trees yield fruit for 100 years.

It fights skin infections

Has been used as an acne cure

Cures urinary tract infections

Controls dysentery

Reduces pain

Controls fever

Anti arthritic

Anti aging

Prevents atherosclerosis, thrombosis, and heart disease

Reduces hypertension

Anti-depressant

Helps fight and prevent bacterial and fungal infections

Eliminates kidney stones

Prevents glaucoma

Helps in weight loss

Helps with Parkinson Disease

Stabilizes blood sugar

Lowers blood pressure

Cures cancer

Prevents gum disease, periodonitis

Used to treat psoriasis and eczema

Helps prevent alzheimer

The mangosteen is very rich in antioxidants, especially in xanthones. There are over 40 known xanthones contained in this amazing fruit. Xanthones are very powerful antioxidants. The fruit is also rich in Vitamin C and B Vitamins. The mangosteen is packed with valuable minerals also, such as, copper, manganese, magnesium, and potassium.

The real value of this fruit is not the fruit itself, but the rind that surrounds and protects this fruit. This rind is called the “pericarp.” The pericarp is the part of the fruit that contains almost all of the xanthones. The pericarp is the part of the fruit that yields almost all of it's health benefits. Therefore I will concentrate on the pericarp for the remainder of this article. I could go on and on about the benefits of this incredible fruit, but I would guess that you understand the value of its benefits and would personally like to enjoy these benefits.

If you live somewhere in the world where this fruit is grown, the fruit will be readily available and inexpensive. For the remainder of the people living where this fruit is scarce, you need not worry, because the fruit and extracts of the fruit can be made available to you.

For those who have the fresh fruit available, the fruit can be converted into a powerful supplement loaded with powerful antioxidants. The process of doing so is to take advantage of the qualities contained in the pericarp. The pericarp does not have the same delightful flavor that the fruit boasts of. So to make the pericarp more tolerable it has to be combined with, for example, the fruit juice of the Mangosteen fruit and possibly combined with other fruits.

In my home, here in Colombia, we enjoy exotic tropical fruit juices every day at lunch time. We almost always blend at least two fruits together. One could blend mangosteen with pineapple, and then add some dried powder from the mangosteen's pericarp. Most likely sugar will need to be added to ones specific tastes. Below I will describe the process of making the dried powder from the mangosteen's pericarp. Once one has the dried powder, it can be added to many different juices or other food dishes. The uses of the dried powder are endless and only limited to one's imagination.

First, purchase the mangosteen fruit at your local tropical fruit stand if you are in Southeast Asia or Colombia. Or if you are in the United States, it can now be found, because it is now legal to import the fruit. For a while it was illegal to import the fruit because the risk of carrying insects from the tropical parts of the world. Now the fruit is available and later I will help you with some sources to purchase the fruit. The price although will vary greatly. Just the other day I purchased a pound of mangosteens for $1.50. I have heard that it could cost between $7 and $15 per pound in the United States.

Next, open the fruit by cutting around the diameter of the fruit with a a sharp knife. Then you just lift the cap and expose the fruit. The fruit looks almost like garlic cloves but whiter. The rind or pericarp is about a quarter of an inch to three eights of an inch thick , depending on the size of the fruit. It is an intense purple and it does stain what ever it touches.

After extracting the fruit, slice up the pericarp and put it in the sun until dried. Sun drying is the best way to dry the fruit without damaging the medicinal qualities of the pericarp. When the rind is completely dried, grind up the rind into a powder and store in a glass jar, preferably in a cool location. The rinds of the mangosteen yield quite a bit of powder. Now you have a very powerful powder that you can incorporate into juices or whatever recipes you like. If you don't want to go to this much trouble, or there are not fresh mangosteens available to you, there are Mangosteen powders that can be purchased on line. Just be sure that the pericarp was sun-dried, because the sun drying bests preserves the qualities of the fruit.

The following pictures were taken in my home, showing the drying and grinding process that yields the mangosteen powder. After drying for a day, I cut the pericarp into smaller pieces and dried the pericarp for another few hours the next day.

Now that the pericarp is fully dried, I use a hand operated coffee grinder to make the final powder.

The following picture is of the ground pericarp after using the coffee grinder. I later ground it again to make the powder even finer. The entire process of making your own Mangosteen powder is very time consuming. Buying the powder somewhere is a better alternative.

Xango was probably the first exposure the public had to this wonderful fruit. Xango is a juice that has been marketed thru multilevel marketing. I do not know much about the product itself. I prefer to buy the fresh fruit or buy the dried extract on line. But making mangosteen juice, using the whole fruit, as Xango claims, is a very difficult and costly process. Buying the juice from a company that actually utilizes the entire fruit is a better way to go than trying to make it yourself. I live in a country where the mangosteen are plentiful and abundant, so I will make my own juice.

There is a company called Friedas that imports mangosteens. They were the first company to import the kiwi to the United States. I believe that you can purchase the fresh fruit from Friedas on Amazon.

Enjoy the miracles of the mangosteen and eat healthy.