In recent years, a fruit called "mangosteen" has appeared in the northern fruit market, which looks purple-black in the skin, white in flesh, and shaped like a persimmon, and many people do not recognize this fruit. Today I will talk about some of the situations of this plant.
First, the botanical characteristics of mangosteen
1. Name and classification status
Mangosteen is an alias, its official Chinese name is Mangji Persimmon, this name comes from the "Chinese Economic Plant", in the "Flora of China" identified as the official middle name; The scientific name is Garcinia mangostana Linn., which was officially named and published in 1762; other names include inverted twister, wind fruit, mangosteen, mountain bamboo, mountain zhuzi, etc.; In plant taxonomy, it belongs to the garcinia cambogia small trees of the Garcinia cambogia family and has no relationship with persimmons.
2, distribution and growth environment
Mangosteen is mainly distributed in Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries in the world; After the introduction of hainan, Taiwan, Fujian, Guangdong and Yunnan, mangosteen is a tropical fruit tree, suitable for tropical climate and environmental conditions.
3, appearance characteristics
The first is for small trees, with a height of less than 20 meters, dense branches, branches overlapping each other, and the surface of the twigs has obvious longitudinal edges.
The second is single-leaf pairs, the leaves are thick and leathery, shiny, oval or oval-shaped rectangular, 10-25 cm long, the midrib is raised on both sides, the lateral veins are dense, up to 40-50 pairs, the leaf edge is fully margined, and the petiole is thick.
The third is floral heterogeneity, sepals and petals are usually 4; Male flowers 2-9 clusters of branches, stamens combined to form 4 bunches, degenerate pistil conical; The female flowers are solitary or in pairs, at the top of the branches, slightly larger than the male flowers, about 5 cm in diameter; Flowering from September to October;
When ripe, the berries are purple-red, with yellow-brown patches, the outer fruit is leathery, smooth, with 4-5 seeds inside, the seeds have a juicy white scoop-shaped false seed coat, which is the edible part of the people, and the fruit ripens in November-December.
Second, the main use of mangosteen
First, its fruit is a famous tropical fruit, the pulp can be eaten raw or made preserved fruit, mainly rich in dietary fiber, sugars, vitamins, a variety of minerals, edible beneficial to the human body.
Second, according to relevant research, its peel mainly contains α - inverted kuttonin, β - inverted kuttonin, γ - inverted kuttonin as the representative of the oxacthra anthraxone compounds, in Southeast Asia, people use mangosteen peel as a traditional medicine to treat skin infections, trauma, diarrhea has a history of many years.
Third, in recent years, people have found that the proanthocyanidins contained in the peel of mangosteen have a variety of biological activities such as antioxidant and prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and have a wide range of uses in food, medicine, cosmetics and other fields.