Introduction to Mangosteen Mangosteen fruit/peel/seed

Mangosteen can refer to both the plant mangosteen and the fruit of this plant. Mangosteen , formerly known as mangosteen, is native to Southeast Asia. It usually takes 10 years for it to bear fruit. It has very strict environmental requirements, so it is a veritable green fruit, as famous as durian, and is known as the "Queen of Fruits".

Introduction to Mangosteen

Mangosteen (purple mangosteen) is native to the Malay Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago. It is cultivated in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Myanmar.

It is cultivated more. It is an evergreen tree of the family Garcinia, with a height of up to 15 meters and a lifespan of more than 70 years. The leaves are oval, the flowers are like hollyhocks, with red petals and yellow stamens, and most of them bloom in spring and bear fruit in autumn. Although the cost of planting mangosteen is not high, it takes many years to harvest, and generally the fruit can be picked 10 years after planting. Because of its low yield, it is rare and expensive, and the selling price is often one or two times higher than the "five-legged apple" in the United States. The winter temperature in Taiwan is lower than that in Southeast Asia, and the local climate has not been adapted. Therefore, although the introduction experiment began in the early 20th century, it has not been successful. At present, Taiwan has not yet achieved economic cultivation. The key is that high temperature is one of its important growth factors. If the temperature is below 4°C, it will be killed by cold damage. However, mangosteen is indeed produced near the Huangguoshu Waterfall in Guizhou, my country, and it tastes very good!

Mangosteen fruit

The mangosteen fruit is the same size as a persimmon, with an oblate shape, a thick and hard dark purple shell, and is covered by four pedicles, which look like a persimmon. The shell is very thick, making it difficult to damage the flesh. The peel is hard and solid, and it makes a "bang bang" sound when you knock it with chopsticks. When you peel off the shell, you will see seven or eight white and crystal-clear cloves of flesh, which look like peeled garlic cloves, wrapped around each other. The flesh of the mangosteen is snow-white, tender and soft, with a sweet and fragrant taste, slightly acidic and cool, smooth and delicious, relieves fatigue and thirst, promotes hair growth and replenishes the body, and is a treasure among tropical fruit trees.

Morphological characteristics of mangosteen

Exocarp

Mangosteen undergoes incomplete agamy, so it can produce fruit without fertilization. The newly grown fruit is tender green.

If grown under the tree, the fruit will be completely white. Over the next two or three months, the fruit will grow in size and the color of the exocarp will gradually darken, eventually turning dark green. Eventually, the entire fruit will grow to a diameter of about 4-8 cm, and the hard exocarp will become softer, indicating that the seeds have fully developed. When the fruit stops growing in size, chlorophyll synthesis slows down and another color phase begins to appear. Initially, the exocarp of the fruit is green with red stripes, then it turns red and finally dark purple. This process lasts for more than ten days, indicating that the fruit is fully mature and can be eaten.

The outer peel of mangosteen contains a series of polyphenols with astringent effects, including xanthones and tannins, which can ensure that the fruit is not attacked by insects, fungi, plant viruses, bacteria and animals when it is immature. Among them, xanthones have anti-cancer and antioxidant effects.

Endocarp

The edible inner pericarp of mangosteen is called aril in botany. It is white, about 4-6 cm in diameter, and consists of 4-8 petals. It is wedge-shaped and contains apomixis seeds. There are some protruding ridges in the inner layer of the exocarp, which are the remnants of the stigma, arranged in a wheel, which is consistent with the number of petals of the aril.

seed

Mangosteen seeds are about 1 cm long, flat, and stubborn, so they must be kept moist before germination. The embryo of the seed is a nucellar embryo, which does not require fertilization. Mangosteen seeds can germinate as soon as they are separated from the fruit, but will quickly die in dry conditions. There are multiple seeds in a mangosteen fruit, but only one of them can germinate.