Mangosteen Health Benefits

Mangosteen Health Benefits

When you first hear about how Mangosteen benefits people on a variety of health conditions, you may be shocked by the number of health-enhancing properties this exotic fruit provides.

Doing your own research on this amazing fruit for the health benefits it may provide your family and friends is time truly well spent. As you take a closer look at Mangosteen, you'll find solid scientific evidence behind the fruit's many healing properties.
Medical Practitioners Tout the Benefits of Mangosteen

Experienced health professionals - who understand why it helps their patients and how it heals their bodies - have written extensively about the health benefits of the Mangosteen fruit.

Some of these health practitioners, who have experienced the benefits of this fruit in their own lives and in their patients', have these to say:

"Mangosteen provides powerful support for every organ system in the human body. This fact is being confirmed on a daily basis by clinical experience... I am convinced that Mangosteen will, without a doubt, be the most successful food supplement ever."
- J. Frederic Templeman, M.D., a primary care physician for more than 20 years and board certified in both the United States and Canada.(1)

"Mangosteen... is able to reverse most of the ailments of modern man."
- Kenneth J. Finsand, M.D., a practicing chiropractic physician for nearly 30 years who specialized in functional medicine throughout his medical career.(2)

"Mangosteen provides huge health benefits for every organ in our bodies."- Sam Walters, N.M.D., a family practitioner trained as a specialist in both traditional and natural medicine, with more than 30 years of comprehensive practical experience in the medical profession, and formulated nutritional products for companies and institutions including the NASA Space Center for the austronauts.(3)
Why does Your Health Benefit from Mangosteen?

What makes Garcinia Mangostana L. so versatile in addressing so many health issues and in promoting health in so many ways?

Mangosteen contains more than 40 biologically-active, natural chemical compounds called Xanthones. While all these Xanthones have similar molecular structures, each one has its own unique chemical composition that permits it to perform a specific function.

Alpha-mangosteen, for example, is a very potent antioxidant. Gamma-mangostin is a powerful anti-inflammatory. Garcinone E is a strong anti-tumor agent.

These and the other Xanthones found in the Mangosteen provide a virtual medicine chest of natural healing compounds that address a wide variety of health issues.
Mangosteen's Many Uses

Medical professionals have become very good at treating diseases, but we know they don't have all the answers.

There also are times when they have used a drug or treatment that later was found to have done more harm than good, or that have done enough damage which far outweighed the benefits the drug or treatment provided. Drugs like Vioxx, Celebrex and Phen-fen are a few that come to mind.

Here's a simple question: Why use drugs --- with their harmful and sometimes fatal side-effects --- when fruits can do the job?

Natural remedies provide health benefits without the harmful side-effects of drugs.

But some who hear or read about the many health benefits of Mangosteen for the first time may be inclined to say that it's just too many and too good to be true for one exotic fruit to be able to provide them all.
Modern Science Agrees With Traditional Asian Healing

Centuries of Mangosteen use has helped Southeast Asians maintain or regain their health and cure their diseases. Traditional Asian healers use the fruit to stop infection, treat inflammation, and increase one's energy, among others.

Modern scientists and a growing number of health practitioners now agree on the medical benefits of Mangosteen. They have found that the fruit is helpful in preventing and possibly even stopping a wide range of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, cancer and other chronic diseases.

Those who have taken the time to do their own research on the validity of each health benefit of Mangosteen will find that there is real and solid science behind the "Queen of Fruits", so-called because of Queen Victoria's reported preferrence for this exotic fruit centuries ago.
Xanthones in Mangosteen

Our immune system tries to keep trillions of cells in our bodies protected from disease-causing toxins, free radicals, viruses, bacteria, fungi and other harmful agents.

At times, though, our immune system gets overwhelmed. Our bodies get sick, often because of free radical damage.

A free radical is an unstable atom with an unpaired electron. When a free radical comes in contact with a stable atom, it steals the electron it needs from the stable atom. This leaves the once stable atom irreparably damaged and prone to succumb to disease.

Antioxidants counteract free radicals. They have an extra electron that they can share with free radicals. Because of this ability, they are able to prevent free radicals from attacking healthy atoms or cells.

Mangosteen contains powerful antioxidants and immune system boosters called Xanthones, natural chemical compounds which were proven to possess a variety of potent medicinal properties.

Xanthones occupy a special place in the Mangosteen's arsenal of healing compounds. They have been shown to have more potent antioxidant activity than vitamin E, one of nature's most powerful known antioxidants.

A laboratory test known as ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity), for example, showed that an ounce of Mangosteen juice provides 20 to 30 times more capacity to absorb free radicals than an ounce of most fruits and vegetables.
Mangosteen’s Other Natural Compounds

Mangosteen also contains other potent natural compounds like catechins, polysaccharides, quinones, stilbenes and polyphenols.

Catechins were discovered to be five times more potent as antioxidants than vitamin C.

Polysaccharides are highly potent anti-cancer and anti-bacterial plant compounds. They help block a mutated cell's ability to stick to healthy cells to help stop the spread of cancer, and are specially effective against intracellular bacteria.

Quinones are known for their anti-bacterial properties and also are strong oxidants.

Stilbenes in plants defend these plants against fungi. Interestingly, stilbenes also maintain their anti-fungal properties even when ingested. They also are strong antioxidants.

Polyphenols were found to be far more more potent as antioxidants than vitamin E, considered one of the most powerful known antioxidants.
Long List of Mangosteen Healing Properties

To sum it all up, here's a partial list of the 200-plus, mind-boggling Mangosteen medicinal benefits and properties from the catalog of prominent ethnobotanist, Dr. James Duke.

Anti-aging - helps prevent aging
Anti-allergenic - helps prevent allergic reactions
Anti-arthritic – helps prevent arthritis
Anti-atherosclerotic - helps prevent the hardening of the arteries
Antibiotic - prevents or modulates bacterial infections
Anti-calculitic - helps prevent kidney stones
Anti-cataract - helps prevent cataracts
Antidepressant – helps with depression
Anti-diarrheal – helps with diarrhea
Anti-fatigue - helps relieve fatigue
Antifungal - prevents or modulates fungal infections
Anti-glaucomic - helps prevent glaucoma
Anti-Inflammatory – helps with inflammation
Anti-lipidemic - helps lower blood fat
Anti-neuralgic - helps in nerve pain
Anti-obesity - helps in weight loss
Anti-osteoporosis - helps prevent the loss of bone mass
Antioxidant-rich – rich in antioxidants
Anti-oxolytic - anti-anxiety
Anti-Parkinson – helps with Parkinson's disease
Anti-periodontic - helps prevent gum disease
Antipyretic - helps lower fever
Anti-tumor and cancer-preventive
Anti-vertigo - helps prevent dizziness
Antiviral - prevents or modulates viral infections
Cardio-protective - helps in the protection of the heart
Hypoglycemic - helps stabilize blood sugar
Hypotensive - helps lower blood pressure
Immunostimulant – helps the immune system fight infection

This exotic fruit, used in traditional medicine for centuries, contains some of the most potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial and anti-fungal compounds in nature.

Independent scientific research studies and clinical experience all show the remarkable health benefits of Mangosteen.

The Mangosteen Fruit from Southwest Asia

The Mangosteen Fruit from Southwest Asia

The Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana in Latin) plant is a tropical evergreen tree, believed to have originated in the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas. It was first discovered in Burma and Siam (now known as Thailand). The tree grows from 7 to 25 meters tall. This exotic edible Mangosteen fruit is a deep reddish purple when ripe. In Asia, the Mangosteen fruit is known as the "Queen of Fruits".

The Mangosteen tree requires a warm, very humid, equatorial climate all year round. Many people have tried to grow Garcinia mangostana in warm places such as California and Florida or in special greenhouses outside South East Asia, but they experienced little success because of the different environmental factors. The Mangosteen tree requires abundant moisture and only grows well in a tropical environment.

The Mangosteen fruit grown in Thailand is harvested in the season of optimum ripeness for maximum efficacy. The xanthone rich pericarp (the outer rind) is then separated from the pulp and freeze-dried.

The outer shell or rind of the Mangosteen fruit (called the pericarp) is rather hard, typically 4 to 6 centimeters in diameter, resembling a spherical, reddish-black, cartoon-style bomb. By cutting through the shell, one finds a very pale and fleshy fruit 3 to 5 centimeters in diameter. Depending on its size and ripeness, there may or may not be pits in the segments of the fruit. The number of fruit pods is directly related to the number of petals on the bottom of the shell. Commonly, the average Mangosteen will have 5 fruit pods.

The shell of the Mangosteen fruit looks tough and hard, but is easy to open. Care must be taken when opening the fruit, as the reddish-black husk outside produces a purplish, inky juice that stains fabric and can be almost impossible to remove (the reason why they are banned from some hotels in countries where they are available). To open a Mangosteen, the shell is usually broken apart, not cut. Holding the fruit in both hands, press it gently (thumbs on one side, the other fingers on the other) until the shell cracks. It is then very easy to pull the halves apart along the crack and remove the fruit without staining.

One of the most-praised of tropical fruits, and certainly the most-esteemed fruit in the family Guttiferae, the Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana in Latin) is almost universally known or heard of by this name. But there are numerous variations in nomenclature: among Spanish-speaking people the fruit is called mangostan; to the French it is mangostanier, mangoustanier, mangouste or mangostier; in Portuguese it is mangostao, mangosta or mangusta; in Dutch it is manggis or manggistan; in Vietnamese it is mang cut; in Malaya it may be referred to in any of these languages or by the local terms mesetor, semetah, or sementah; and in the Philippines it is mangis or mangostan. Throughout the Malay Archipelago of Malaysia, there are many different spellings of names for Mangosteen similar to most of those mentioned above.

MANGOSTEEN THE QUEEN OF FRUITS

Mangosteen is one of the most highly regarded tropical fruits in Asia. Fondly called by Asians as the "Queen of Fruits", the exotic Mangosteen fruit is famous for being both exquisitely luscious and delicious and for its medicinal value.

In the scientific community, it is called Garcinia Mangostana L. In Vietnam, Mangosteen is called cay mang cut. It's manggis in Indonesia and Malaysia, mongkhut in Cambodia, mangkhud in Laos, and mangkhut in Thailand. In the Philippines, it's called mangis or manggustan.