Thai Mangosteen

Thai Mangosteen: The Key to Health?

The mangosteen itself was first discovered in Burma and Siam, which is known as Thailand today. The Thai mangosteen is a tropical evergreen tree and can grow quite tall. In Asia, where it has been known for centuries, it has often been dubbed the  Queen of Fruits due to its healing properties.

The Life Cycle of a Thai Mangosteen

For a Thai mangosteen tree to grow, it must have very humid, warm weather. As a result, you will only find the Thai mangosteen tree growing near the equator. Even though some of the growing conditions are the same in California and Florida, there has not been much success in growing a Thai mangosteen tree in these places, apparently because of the slight differences in climate. There really hasn' t been much success growing the Thai mangosteen trees in greenhouses either.

The fruit of the Thai mangosteen tree itself resembles a small, round eggplant with a curvy, interesting looking cap at the top of the fruit itself. Unlike many other types of fruit, it is usually the outer shell or rind of the fruit that is used. The inner white sectioned fruit is quite edible, but most of the healing properties associated with the fruit are concentrated in the rind.

Even though the Thai mangosteen fruit itself looks like it has a rather hard shell, it can be quite easy to open. Care must be taken when opening them, however, because the rind produces a very purple juice that stains fabric and even skin badly and can be impossible to remove. Often, hotels in Southeast Asia ban their occupants from having the fruit in their rooms for fear of damage to the room.

Since the Thai mangosteen is so difficult to grow outside of Southeast Asia, mangosteen juice is usually rather expensive and can often be difficult to find. The Internet is probably the best place to look for Thai mangosteen juice. You will find many independent distributors selling the juice, which they deliver directly to your home.

Thai mangosteen juice has already been proven to be very beneficial to a person' s health. Whether it is the super fruit that a lot of believers are claiming it is may still need to be proven. Preliminary tests have shown it can help with certain conditions, but long term conditions still need to be studied further. It certainly can' t hurt to try it, and may even have long term health benefits.

(c)  Mangosteen - Tyler's Articles 2006