December 08, 2012

The Queen of Fruits

Mangosteen

Manggis in Bahasa Indonesia, or widely known in English as mangosteen, or in Latin, Garcinia mangostana Linn, was named after Laurent Garcin, a French botanist of the 18th centuries. He reported and described some new plants (genus Garcinia) on his several journey to Bengal, Java, Malacca, Persia and Arabia from 1720 to 1729.

I never thought before that the Queen of Fruits, which originated from my country, has so many health benefits. I never eat mangosteen before, and never hesitated on eating it, because I am not fond of its look. Even though many Indonesian people consider mangosteen as their favorite fruit, but they always throw away the rind of mangosteen into the garbage.

From Discarded Rind To Use As Drug

The rind of mangosteen is believed to be the source of xanthones, bioactive substances. The most active xanthones compounds are alpha-mangostins, gamma-mangostins, and garcinone E.

The dried powdered rind is managed to overcome dysentery.

Mangosteen Pericarp by Natural Health Labs, mangosteen extract that is sold on Amazon which manufactured from its pericarp (rind).

The extracts of mangosteen, which studied in Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Biology, National University of Mexico, have antioxidant, anti-tumoral, anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and anti-viral activities.

Ointment which is made from the rind of mangosteen, managed to overcome eczema and other skin disorders, due to its anti-inflammatory effects.

Filtered water of the rind that has been soaked overnight, is used as a natural remedy for chronic diarrhea in adults and children.

The Debated of Anti-Cancer Studies

The used xanthones as cytotoxic compound on the cells of cancer by some scientists were doubtful. Even though treating cancer cells with cytotoxic compound can result in a variety of cell fates, either stop growing or die rapidly.

Several isolated studies on the extracts of mangosteen by many scientists around the world, were only used rats, hamsters or rabbits as the test subjects. None of them were using a cancer patient as the test subject.

In 1996, the study by Chairungsrilerd N, on two main properties of xanthones, alfa-mangostins and gamma-mangostins, were using hamsters and rabbits, had shown its anti-allergic effects.

In 2002, garcinone E, a xanthone derivative, had shown potential cytotoxic effect against hepatocellular carcinoma cell (liver cancer cell) lines, from cytotoxicity (quality of being toxic to cells) test conducted by Ho CK,.

In 2004, Moongkarndi's study reported the extracts of mangosteen potential activity on stopping the growth of breast cancer cell (SKBR3).

Two years study between 2003 and 2004 by Kenji Matsumoto, had resulted in potential apoptosis (the process of programmed cell death, or death of a cell in any form) activity of alfa-mangostins in human leukemia (blood cancer) cell lines.

Mangosteen Juice

Despite of all above studies, American Cancer Society considers mangosteen juice only as dietary supplements, and recommends to people who are being treated for cancer should speak with their doctors before taking the supplement.

Some famous brand of mangosteen juices that is sold on Amazon: