Mangosteen – Miracle Fruit

Mangosteen – Cancer Fighter

The purple mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) almost seems to be a miracle fruit.  The mangosteen is the fruit of a tropical evergreen tree from Southeast Asia and is believed to have originated in the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas of Indonesia.  The tree has also since been introduced to Columbia in South America.  The meat of the fruit is sweet, tangy and juicy and slightly fibrous and is contained inside of an inedible rind that is of a deep-reddish color.

The health benefits of mangosteen are astounding.  Mangosteen contains calcium, phosphorus and iron, as well as B-complex vitamins and the antioxidant vitamins C and A.  Beyond this, the mangosteen fruit contains high concentrations of over 50 different types of xanthones.  

Xanthones are a group of antioxidant plant compounds.  Xanthones are credited with the following characteristics:

• antioxidant

• antimicrobial

• anti-inflammatory

• antitumor properties

• helpful in preventing oxidation of harmful LDL cholesterol

The US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health at pubmed.gov contains over 200 publications on the benefits of mangosteen.  Some of these are:

2002 – Planta Medica – researchers found a xanthone in the mangosteen rind that has potent effects against human liver cancer cells.

2004 – Journal of Ethnopharmacology - found extracts from the mangosteen rind inhibited human breast cancer cells, including a display of anti-proliferation and anti- oxidation effects in inducing cancer cell death.

2004 – Bioorganic and medicinal chemistry - researchers found the alpha-mangostin targets the mitochondria of human leukemia cells, causing them to die off. They concluded the alpha-mangostin had potential preventive and therapeutic uses in cancer treatments.

Xanthones also reduce the C-reactive protein.  High levels of the C-reactive protein are the result of inflammation in the body caused by many long-term illnesses and infections.  Some causes of this type of inflammation are:

• Cancer of the lymph nodes (lymphoma)

• Immune system diseases, such as lupus

• Swelling of blood vessels in the head and neck (giant cell arteritis)

• Swelling of tissue along joints (rheumatoin arthritis)

• Swelling and bleeding of the intestines (inflammatory bowel disease)

• Bone infection (osteomyelitis)

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.

Resources:

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/c-reactive-protein-crp

www.pubmed.gov