The Mangosteen Tree: An Exotic and Ancient Remedy in a New, Far-away Place
To botanists, the scientists who study and classify plants, the mangosteen is Garcinia mangostana L., a palm-like evergreen tree of slow maturation and modest height native to tropical regions of India, Asia, and the Pacific Rim. To the people who inhabit these regions and their ancient forerunners, however, the mangosteen, by way of its fruit, is also a tart, pungent snack along with an invaluable tonic against disease and ill-health. Today, as mangosteen preparations have begun their debut alongside ginkgo biloba and B vitamins on the supplement shelves, health-conscious shoppers have been given opportunity to discover this fruit-bearing tree's benefits to human health supported by long established traditional use and recent scientific investigation.
Traditional Medicine and Modern Research
In its native tropics, different parts of the tree are routinely prepared as remedies for a number of health problems including both sudden and long-term ailments. These may be brought on by disease, stress, injury, or other cause. These remedies may employ almost any part of the tree. As a food, mangosteen is consumed primarily as the aromatic and tartly citric fruit that grows from its short, leafy branches. What makes the fruit and other materials from this tree so helpful to the sick throughout the tree's native range and so interesting to the modern consumer considering medicinal or preventative supplementation or an exotic, healthy, fruity dessert? Though the edible fruit and its preparations harbor only small amounts of vitamins and minerals, the ripening pulp and rind of mangosteen is uniquely rich in a group of potentially health-promoting natural compounds called xanthones. Current research is pointing to these special substances as major actors in mangosteen's traditionally known medicinal effects.
Mangosteen and Xanthones: Unique Antioxidants for Unique Health Protection
Xanthones may be relatively unexplored by modern science when compared to mangosteen's other health-enriching compounds like vitamin C or catechin, a salutary compound also found in green tea. However, one of the chief health benefits provided by xanthones is one they share with these and many other medicinal compounds: antioxidant power. Widely proclaimed in health circles and supported by ample scientific research, antioxidants are substances, largely natural, that minimize, stop, or prevent the damaging effects of a process known as oxidation inside the body. Though oxidation and its damage can be caused by exposure to toxins like tobacco smoke or a nutritional deficiency, much of the oxidation that happens within our bodies is the result of unavoidable, necessary bodily function. Modest but consistent oxidation occurs when our bodies process and use nutrients and even when we exercise. Increasing evidence from modern research suggests that, overtime, even natural oxidation damages our cells and tissues, contributing strongly to age-related conditions from wrinkles to cancer and heart disease. Many different kinds of xanthones from a variety of tropical plants have demonstrated powerful antioxidant properties. Unlike many of these other plants, mangosteen possesses not only a unique abundance of xanthones but a unique variety of xanthone within its fruit, rind, and leaves. This combined diversity of healthy compounds gives mangosteen, and those who consume it, an especially high-powered antioxidant punch against oxidation and its negative health effects.
Beyond Antioxidants: Mangosteen's Many, Time-tested Uses
In addition to protecting body tissues against the "silent" damage of oxidation, mangosteen has long been known across the tropics for its more obvious medicinal properties. Throughout southern India and Asia and numerous Pacific islands, mangosteen is not only eaten as a traditional food but commonly and effectively used as the main or only ingredient in medicinal treatments for bacterial and fungal infections. Indeed, research on mangosteen's ability to fight against certain, often serious infections has validated traditional uses in a number of stomach, skin, and general infectious illnesses. Although most people reading this article will probably not be concerned about encountering bacteria and fungi normally confined to the sweltering climates of Ceylon or Indonesia, one of mangosteen's most important and ancient uses throughout the tropics will draw deserved attention from anyone suffering from an inflammatory condition. Preparations of mangosteen have been widely employed against run-away inflammation as might occur due to infections or injuries of the skin, mouth, or gastrointestinal tract. Like oxidation, inflammation of bodily tissues causes progressive damage to those tissues, ultimately compromising physical health. However, unlike the slow, quiet, often subtle damage caused by oxidative stress, inflammatory processes are frequently painful and can cause more rapid accumulation of physical injury. And unnoticed inflammation can still wreak havoc on major organ systems such as the joints, arteries, and heart, contributing to many of the same serious conditions as unopposed oxidation. Many local remedies use mangosteen rind, fruit, leaves, and root as a topical preparation, or a medicine applied to the skin or other exposed tissue like the gums or tongue. This is specific to certain inflammatory or infectious conditions affecting such areas, however, and mangosteen preparations are just as frequently drunk or eaten. Once again, xanthones are at least partly responsible for mangosteen's anti-inflammatory properties and daily consumption of mangosteen fruit or supplements may fight internal inflammation over time just as they fight oxidation, lessening or preventing associated tissue damage and possibly associated discomfort.
Maybe an Old Use Becomes a New Standard
The appearance of mangosteen preparations in markets outside its native regions is offering new people the benefits of an effective remedy and tonic. Science meanwhile explores its time-tested properties, rediscovering them while validating and isolating the molecules and mechanisms responsible for mangosteen's positive effects on tissue stressed by oxidation, infection, and inflammation. If these concern you, mangosteen might make a great addition to your dietary and supplemental regimen or perhaps a first alternative or supplemental investment in better health.