Mangostan – Garcinia Mangostana Linn.

mangosteen fruits

Mangostan – Garcinia Mangostana Linn.

Local names: Manggis (Sul.); mangosteen (Engl.); mangostan (Tag.).

Mangostan is usually found planted in parts of Mindanao and in the Sulu Archipelago, and occasionally in other regions, ranging at least as far as Sorsogon. It was purposely introduced here from Malaya.

This is a smooth, conical tree 6 to 10 meters high. The bark is dark brown, and the inner bark, yellowish. The leaves are leathery, 15 to 25 centimeters long, and 6 to 11 centimeters wide; the nerves are numerous, parallel, and close arching, with one intra-marginal vein. The petioles are short and thick. The flowers are 5 centimeters in diameter, 4-parted, bisexual, and borne singly or in pairs at the ends of the branchlets. The fruit is a rounded berry 5 to 7 centimeters in diameter, smooth, yellow, resinous juice. The seeds are large, flattened, and embedded in snowy-white or pinkish delicious pulp, which is botanically called the aril. This pulp gives the fruit its reputation as one of the finest and most delicious of fruits.

Wehmer records that the rind contains 5.5 percent of tannin, and a resin. Schmid isolated from the rind a yellow, crystalline, bitter principle, mangostin (C20H22O5). Prinsen-Geerligs reports that the flesh of the fruit (aril) contains sacharose 10.8 percent, dextrose 1 percent, and kerrelose 1.2 percent. Read reports that the seed contains vitamin C.

According to Guerrero, the leaves and the bark are used as an astringent for aphthae and also as a febrifuge. The pericarp is regarded as very efficacious in curing chronic intestinal catarrh.

Ridley writes that a decoction of the roots is drunk in dysmenorrhoea.

Kirtikar and Basu quote Rumpf, who states that the bark and young leaves are employed by the Macassars in diarrhoea, dysentery, and affections of the genito-urinary tracts, and also as a wash for aphthae of the mouth.

Kirtikar and Basu report that the rind is used as an astringent medicine for diarrhoea and dysentery. It has been found vary useful in chronic diarrhoea in children. They say that the value of the rind lies in the yellow resin, which it contains. The resin, like all other resins, acts as a stimulant to the intestines. They are not sure whether the crystallizable substance, mangostine, which is contained in the rind, has any particular therapeutic property. They quote Waitz, who recommends a decoction of the powdered rind as an external astringent application.

Source: Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture