2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Mangosteen (lat. Garcinia mangostana) - a fruit tree from the Kluzievye family.
Description
Mangosteen is an evergreen fruit tree covered with blackish-brownish bark and endowed with a pyramidal crown. Each tree can be up to twenty-five meters high.
Oval-oblong mangosteen leaves are painted in dark green tones on top, and yellowish-greenish shades on the bottom. The length of the leaves is on average from nine to twenty-five centimeters, and the width is from four and a half to ten centimeters. By the way, very young leaves are characterized by a pinkish color.
Mangosteen flowers are endowed with fleshy petals covered with small reddish specks.
Round fruits, reaching in diameter from 3, 4 to 7, 5 centimeters, are covered with an inedible burgundy-violet skin containing a coloring sticky latex. And immediately under the skin are four to eight segments of edible whitish pulp, to which the seeds adhere tightly. Jelly-like slices are always very fragrant and juicy, sweet with a slight sourness. They are excellent thirst quenchers and literally melt in your mouth. In appearance, mangosteen fruits resemble small apples. And the taste of the pulp is a cross between apricot, peach, strawberry, pineapple, grape and citrus.
Mangosteen bears fruit quite late - the very first fruits can be seen on trees only in the ninth or twentieth year of life.
Where grows
Southeast Asia is considered the birthplace of mangosteen. This crop is rather actively grown in Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, India and Malaysia, as well as in Sri Lanka, the Antilles and the Philippines. Mangosteen is also cultivated in Colombia, Central America and tropical Africa (in Gabon, Ghana, Liberia and Zanzibar).
Usage
White segments of juicy fruits are often eaten fresh. However, sometimes they are canned. With the addition of these fruits, amazing fruit cocktails and mousses, wonderful exotic salads, spicy sauces for fish and meat, as well as soufflés and pie fillings are prepared. Freshly squeezed mangosteen juice is also popular.
A decoction of the bark and leaves of mangosteen is used to lower the temperature, as well as for diarrhea and dysentery. By the way, the bark of this plant is rich in various antioxidants. And the abundance of xanthones makes mangosteen an attractive ingredient in the cosmetics industry.
The flavonoids in mangosteen are considered valuable natural antidepressants - similar substances can be found in ground coffee or dark chocolate.
When choosing a mangosteen, you definitely need to pay attention to the color of the leaves crowning the tops of the fruits - in high-quality fruits they should not be brown, but bright green. Brownish leaves are an indication that the fruit has either started to deteriorate or is overripe, so it's best not to risk it anyway. Overly hard skin is another sign of spoiled fruit - ripe fruit should spring slightly when pressed and be firm enough. By the way, a truly unique feature is characteristic of mangosteen - even if it has rotted, this in no way affects its appearance. That is, you can buy quality fruits only by carefully examining their leaves and touching the fruits themselves. In this case, it is better to give preference to larger fruits - small fruits usually have much less pulp.
In the refrigerator, mangosteen can be stored for two weeks. And whole fruits with intact skin can sometimes lie for a month, however, for this they need a temperature in the range of three to six degrees and a fairly high humidity.
