Mangosteen Nutrition facts

Mangosteen

Unique for its appearance and flavor, mangosteen is often revered as 'the Queen' of tropical fruits, particularly in the South-East Asian regions. This exotic, round, purple color fruit is quite popular for its snow-white, juicy, delicious arils all of the Asian countries, and in recent years by the European and American fruit lovers as well!
Botanically, it is the fruit belonging to the family of Clusiaceae, in the genus: Garcinia.
Scientific name: Garcinia mangostana. Known as 'Mangkhud- (มังคุด)' in Thai language, Thailand is the largest producer and exporter of mangosteens.
Mangosteen plant is an evergreen, upright tree reaching about 20- 60 ft in height. It is commonly found in tropical rainforests of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, as well as in some cultivated orchards of Sri Lanka and India, where annual precipitation and relative humidity are favorable for its growth. Fresh purple fruits can be available in the markets from June until October.
Each tree bears several deep-purple, round shape fruits capped with light green calyx at the stem end. Completely matured fruit measures about 3-7 cm in diameter. Its tough outer rind is about 7-12 mm thick which contains bitter yellow latex that stains clothes black.
Internally; it features 4 to 10 juicy, snow-white, soft, fleshy, triangular segments as in oranges. Each segment may carry 1-4 off-white colored seeds. Seeds are inedible and bitter in taste. The flavor of the fruit can be best described as sweet, mildly tangy, fragrant, and delicious.