The Tropical Mangosteen Fruit

The Mangosteen fruit is among the popularly praised tropical fruits. It falls into the Guttiferae family and has global popularity and hence goes by different names including mangusta, mangosta, mangoustanier, mangostanier and mangouste among many other names.

The Fruit 

The mangosteen fruit comes from a tree that is slow growing and grows erect like most other fruit trees. It has a pyramidal crown and can grow up to 82 feet in height. It has a dark brown flaking bark and the inner bark has gummy, yellow bitter latex. The short stalked leaves are evergreen, thick, dark green and leathery. The fruit is calyx capped at the stem ends and turns dark purple to red purple when ripe. The external part of the fruit is smooth and the rind is thick and purplish white in the inside areas. It has bitter yellow latex and staining purple juice. The fruit has anything from four to eight triangular segments that contain snow white juice and are soft. This fruit can be seedless or contain up to five developed seeds that are flattened or ovoid oblong clinging to the flesh. It is from the segments that mangosteen juice is extracted for enjoyment. The flesh of the fruit is mildly acidic in flavor, but it is delicious and luscious.

The Mangosteen Food Uses

The mangosteen can definitely be enjoyed just like any other fruit. When choosing the fruits, settle for those with high numbers of stigma lobes around the apex. These are the fruits that have more fleshy segments and fewer seeds, hence they will give you more value. The fruits are eaten fresh as part of dessert and are loved by many across the world. The fruits should be opened with care to reach the flesh segments. With the stem end downward, cut around the fruit using a sharp knife and let the cut go through completely round the rind. You then can lift the top half to expose the segments which you can lift using a fork.

The fruit segments are usually canned, but they tend to lose that delicate flavor when canned. The best of the fruit can be enjoyed fresh. The fruit is also used to make jam. The seedless segments are first boiled in equal amount sugar and cloves for not more than 20 minutes and put in glass jars. In some areas, the fruit is preserved by boiling the flesh in brown sugar and seeds are included to keep the flavor rich. The seeds can actually be eaten alone when roasted or boiled.

Other uses of Mangosteen 

The twigs of mangosteen fruit can be turned into chew-sticks and are used as such in areas like Ghana. The rind contains catechin, rosin and tannin and it is therefore helpful for tanning leather in countries like China. It is from this that black dye is yielded from. The non bearing fruit trees are also used largely as wood, but in small dimensions. The wood is dark brown and moderate in durability. It is used in making spear handles, rice pounders and used in cabinetwork and construction.