What is the "Queen of Fruits"?

Have you ever heard of the “Queen of Fruits”? This dark purple fruit, native to Southeast Asia is celebrated for her beauty, succulent flavor, and potential health benefits. Join us on this snack-i-sode as we taste this sweet and tangy fruit. We’ll also discuss her history, nutritional value, and we’ll unveil this beautiful fruit’s identity. 

Image by مانفی, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Shownotes: yournutritionprofs.com

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Transcript

Discover the secrets of the 'Queen of Fruits'.  Today we’re talking about the mangosteen- its rich history, nutrient content, and its health benefits. Get ready to discover this tropical fruit that has captured taste buds and curiosity alike. 

M: I’m Professor Megan 

S: and I’m Professor Susan, and we’re...

Both: Your Nutrition Profs!

M: We are registered dietitians and college professors who have taught more than 10,000 students about health and nutrition. We have answered a LOT of questions about nutrition over the years – 

S: Some questions we get asked every year and some are rarely asked but very interesting.

M: We’re here to share our answers to these common (and uncommon) nutrition questions with you.

S: So bring your curiosity and let’s get started. 

Both: Welcome to our class!

M: Hello everyone and welcome to this snack-i-sode about a food that may not be familiar to some of you curious eaters. 

S: I’m really excited about today’s episode. The unusual and interesting food that we’re going to try today has been dubbed the “Queen of Fruits”! Any idea what fruit that is?

M: Hmmm, Queen of Fruits…….it’s got to be the mangosteen!

S: A plus! Mangosteen, or Garcinia mangostana, is not to be confused with mangoes. Mangoes are a completely different tropical fruit. Mangosteen does not look anything like a mango. 

M: And since you all can’t see the mangosteen we’re going to describe it. So it’s a smallish purple fruit with a crown of green-petals on top, ours a little bit more like olive green. And it’s really is quite pretty.  It actually looks like it has a little crown on its head. The fruit’s about the size of an orange, right you can kind of see that?

S: Yep.

M: So like an orange or like a large plum and it’s slightly flattened on the top and bottom. 

S: It fits easily into the palm of my hand. The flesh is a really dark purple and the texture’s pretty smooth. It’s smoother than I thought it would be. 

M: Yeah. 

S: It’s also really hard! I mean, I can’t really squish it all. It’s nothing like a mango which is much larger and green to yellow and it has a thick rind but with mangoes you can still squeeze it and make a dent. 

M: This fruit is considered ready to eat when the rind is dark purple like ours. And again choose fruit with green glossy stems on top. And it’s recommended to avoid squeezing the fruit as it bruises really easily, but seriously guys, this is too hard to squeeze. They do say to choose heavy fruits though so that’s good. Light mangosteens are typically old and the flesh is likely dried out.

S: The edible part of the mangosteen are these white wedges that are found on the inside of the fruit. So check out our website, yournutritionprofs.com, for pics…. The stems on ours, like Megan said, aren’t really green or glossy, but we only had- we could only find it at one shop, so we really couldn’t compare and contrast very well. 

M: And this is only the 2nd time I’ve actually ever seen them in a local grocery store

S: Right.

M: …not even at the speciality shop.

S: Yeah, they’re rare. 

M: Ok, so we’re going to open them and share with you guys a little bit more later. But once you do open it up, there are supposed to be 4 to 8 wedges, like Susan mentioned, and they should be white and firm, not yellowish. And it kind of looks like the sections of an orange and supposedly you can pull it apart pretty easily and then can be popped directly into your mouth! Or so the internet says. The number of pods within the fruit corresponds to the number of brown petals on the bottom of the fruit, so that’s six. 

S: We’ll see.

M: We’ll see.

S: I’m actually kind of excited to try one of these.

M: Me too, but in the meantime do you want to hear some fun facts about mangosteen? 

S: I do. 

M: It’s grown for centuries on small trees native to Southeast Asian countries like India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. But the only place in the US you may find it is in South Florida near Miami, or in Puerto Rico. 

S: The trees grow very, very slowly and it can take 8 to 14 years before they fruit for the first time.

M: Oh my gosh, that’s a long time to wait.

S: You’ve got to be really patient. But once they do start fruiting, each tree can yield more than 1000 fruits every other year. In the off years, they still fruit but the yields are much lower. 

M: And the trees really don’t like any cold weather, and as we mentioned the fruit is really sensitive, it bruises easily and once harvested it actually doesn’t ripen further but begins to degrade fairly rapidly. So why is it called the Queen of Fruits?

S: Interesting story, apparently there was a rumor going around in 1890 that Queen Victoria wanted one. She had heard that they were really delicious, but also how susceptible they were and sensitive to bruising and spoilage. So she decreed that she would grant knighthood to anyone who brought her a mangosteen. And so that’s how it earned the name “Queen of Fruits”

M: Long live the queen!

S: I love that story. So here’s a nutrition question, what nutrients are in mangosteen?

M: Well according to the USDA, and these standards are based on one cup of canned, drained mangosteen. It provides about 140 kcal, mostly from carbohydrate, it provides about 15% of the recommended amount of fiber and there’s really not much fat or protein, just like most other fruits.

S: Right.

M: A cup would be a lot, about the size of your fist. And because you only eat the white wedges it would probably take 2-3 whole mangosteens to give you 1 cup of canned.

S: It also provides vitamin C, several B vitamins and a few minerals, liked manganese, copper, and magnesium. We have linked the nutrient information in our show notes so check it out on our website. 

M: Mangosteen is also a good source of xanthones, a type of phytochemical that research has linked to antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and even, anti-diabetic functions.

S: Wow, that’s quite a bit.

M: Yeah.

S: So let’s talk about the possible health benefits of this queen.

M: I learned a new word while researching this fruit, pericarp. It’s a botanical term that describes the area around the ovary of a plant, the area where seeds are located. You know in an apple the section around the seeds that can be a little bit tough? That’s a pericarp. In Mangosteen, the pericarp is the area around the little white wedges just inside the skin of the fruit. It’s the rind. It’s where those beneficial xanthones are found that we mentioned earlier. 

S: Mangosteen has been used in Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic Medicine, especially the pericarp, and according to Chinese tradition, mangosteen has high yin energy. It is said to have the most ‘cooling effect’ of any fruit and is full of female energy that feeds the body’s yin. Another really good reason to call it the Queen of Fruits!   

M: Since we usually don’t eat the pericarp of the plant as it can be tough, one way to get these beneficial phytochemicals is to steep the mangosteen rinds in boiling water to make a tea. It can also be dried and made into a powder form. For centuries in Southeast Asia, the pericarp of the mangosteen has been used as an antiseptic, anti-parasitic, a pain reliever, and a treatment for skin rashes. If you’re going to eat a fresh one though, stick to the white wedges.

S: And, of course, if you can’t find the actual fruit, you can always find supplements that contain mangosteen.

M: It’s most commonly sold as a powder or in juices. If you’re going to use a powder or juice as a supplement there are some important things to consider. So people often take mangosteen supplements for the purpose of healing gum infections, weight loss, improving muscle strength, and treating diarrhea. However, there is little scientific evidence to support these claims. The possible exception is taking mangosteen by mouth or applying a gel containing mangosteen to the gums to treat gum infections. 

S: Possible side effects of supplementation include constipation, bloating, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting. More seriously, mangosteen may slow blood clotting which might increase your risk of bleeding, so if you have a bleeding disorder pay attention. 

M: Also mangosteen may increase the effects of a common dementia medication, Aricept. So if either of these things apply to you, be sure to discuss with your doctor before you consume. 

S: You’d definitely want to keep that in mind.

M: This fruit may not be readily available at all grocery stores and may be more common in specialty markets. Like I said earlier, I’ve only seen the fruit, fruit like this, in the grocery store two times and it wasn’t even a specialty grocery store.

S: Right. 

M: But the juice is typically more readily available but remember, when consuming in juice form, you’re likely missing out on the fiber and some of the other nutritional benefits that the mangosteen can provide.

S: And we actually do have some juice that we bought at the Asian market.

M: Yep.

S: So let’s try it! Now according to the internet, you’re supposed to use a serrated knife, to make a shallow cut at the equator of the fruit. And they recommended between a quarter and a third inches deep. I used a serrated knife to cut it and I have to say that I had to push a lot harder than I thought.  And I would say, it was easily a third of an inch deep.

M: Yeah, yeah.

S: Because I had to cut quite…

M: Well you can show them.

S: Yeah so that was- it was easily a third to an inch deep. But once you got it open, once I made the cut all the way around it was pretty easy to pry it open.

M: Yeah. 

S: And it is really very pretty. It’s got white wedges on the inside that look a little bit like sections of a citrus fruit.

M: Yeah I was about to say it kind of looks like an orange except it’s white…

S: Yeah.

M:  …and small.

S: It is white. And then around the outside it’s still dark purple, so that's that pericarp. It’s very- it’s a very pretty fruit.

M: The outside…

S: Maybe not so pretty…

M: Well on the inside it’s, you know….

S: Yeah, I mean, it does look like- 

M: …it’s unexpected.

S: Yes, that’s true. I don't know who decided to open one up but good for them.

M: Yeah, earlier it said that if you look at the leaves on the bottom, that the number would match the number of wedges, and we did find that to be true. 

S: We did. So this one said it had six- 

M: Mmm-hmm. 

S: And when we cut it open it has six wedges inside. And we did another one that was five and it had five- 

M: Yeah 

S: … wedges inside so that’s actually kind of cool. 

M: We did find some seeds. Very, very small, right in the middle when you’re pulling the wedges apart. And it says they’re edible, but they might taste kind of bitter, so…

S: Alright, this is my first mangosteen, so…

M: Me too… Well actually, I have had mangosteen juice before…

S: Oh, yeah.

M: …but it was mixed with a lot of other stuff so I don’t really count that.

S: Yeah, and we’re going to try some mangosteen juice too. 

M: Yeah.

S: So, flavor has been described as  a combination of lychee (which is another sort of unusual fruit), peach, strawberry, and pineapple. And it is often touted as the most delicious fruit of the tropics! So let's try it. 

M: Oh… I only have a fork…

S: Oh yeah, sorry. 

M: These are-

S: They’re slippery. 

M: They’re … they are slimy… No, they’re slippery.

S: They are slippery. They do look like wedges from citrus fruit and it’s interesting because the inside of the wedge is kind of opaque. And then the outside is darker white.

M: Very unexpected. 

S: Yeah. 

M: I did not expect it to be opaque on the inside. 

S: Alright, so we’re popping in a wedge, let’s go…. It doesn’t really taste like anything I would.. 

M: No, but it had a big seed. 

S: Oh, you had a seed in yours? 

M: Oh my gosh, it was so big.

S: Oh, I didn’t have a seed in mine. 

M: It was really hard.

S: Oh I had a little bit of a hardness in mine, but I don’t think it was a seed.

M: Oh no, this was, this was like..  like a sunflower seed size.

S: Oh well let’s hope- let’s hope they’re right and those are ok to eat. 

M: Well I’m sure they are but I- it really… Like you’re describing it and I’m like, wait, what’s happening in my mouth? It feels unexpected. 

S: Yours felt different. 

M: Yeah.

S: This wedge feels like it has a big seed inside it too. 

M: There you go.. See… 

S: Interesting… 

M: So mine had a really big seed in it but that’s ok, it didn’t taste bad.

S: How about one of these little ones? You want a little one?

M: I do want a little one... Oh, it’s cute. 

S: It’s cute. Now these are little small wedges. 

M: Oh…

S: Oh so much better. 

M: So much better! Definitely no seed, I like it - I liked that a lot better. The texture in my mouth matched my expectation which is usually a good thing.

S: Yeah, oh for sure. Yeah, actually, I  can see why people like these. 

M: I can too. It's  a lot of work though it seems.

S: It was a lot harder than I thought to cut it open. I was like “oh, am I going to cut myself? I hope not”. Ok, we also have some juice.

M: Juice… the nectar. 

S: And it looks like-  

M: Clear- not clear, opaque? 

S: It’s opaque. It’s white. And…

M: …it smells very sweet.

S: It does smell very sweet. I can’t figure out… that smell reminds me of something…

M: Me too.

S: ...but I’m not sure what it is.

M: Me too. 

S: Alright, here goes.

M: Alright. That is not as flavorful as I was expecting it to be.

S: It’s not as sweet either.

M: No, it doesn’t match the smell. 

S: No, it’s very good. 

M: It’s really good, but I was expecting it to be really like sweet because of the smell. 

S: Yeah, yeah… Oh no this is delicious. I would definitely drink this.

M: Same. Yeah, that’s delightful.

S: And it does match…

M: Yeah.

S: It matches the flavor of the fresh fruit.

M: I… I agree.

S: Yeah, you know how sometimes the juice, it doesn't really match. 

M: That’s really good.

S: That’s very good. Ok, and if you know us, if there’s a cocktail, we’re going to try it.

M: So we’re trying a mangosteen margarita, it was actually really easy to make in the blender, although I don’t think either of us usually drink blended margaritas. 

S: No we don't. We’re usually rocks people.

M: Yeah.

S: But…

M: But, that’s fine. So we made this in the blender, and we used frozen margarita mix, mangosteen juice we just tested, and some frozen mixed fruit. The recipe called for rum instead of tequila which is sort of unusual, so I guess it- it’s more like a daiquiri? 

S: Well, I mean,  with rum in it for sure. And you know what, you don't even have to use liquor…

M: …at all. 

S: It can be a nonalcoholic drink too. So let’s try this one. It actually turned out… because of the fruit we used, it actually turned out to be a red color. 

M: Yeah. I like it.

S: It’s good.

M: Oh it’s refreshing. 

S: It is and it might be all the fruit that’s in it too. That probably helps but we had a really mixed bag of fruit. We had peaches and… 

M: Raspberries

S: And pineapple

Both: Strawberries.

M: Blueberries.

S: A few blackberries.

M: Mango in our mangosteen margarita.

S: Oh how nice.

M: Look at that. They really are nothing alike though guys.  

 S: No they’re not. We used the juice and honestly, you should definitely use the juice for the cocktail because it would take a lot of fresh mangosteens to make it and guys, they were expensive! 

M: Yeah.

S: They were $13.00 a pound at our local store, HEB. Not sponsored by we’re open to it. And probably there would be 4 to 5 in a pound. 

M: That’s really pricey for fruit. The can of juice- the 12 oz can of juice that we got… we got from a local Asian market and it was only about $1.50.

S :Much better. 

M: So much better. But it did have some added sugar. 

S: It did yeah. So you wouldn't want to drink it everyday but if you’re going to use it in a cocktail or some other kind of recipe, I would say go for the juice. 

M: The juice. It was good. 

S: But if you do have your heart set on trying a  fresh one and you can’t find it at your local market, there are a few websites that will sell fresh mangosteen and they’ll ship it to your doorstep. A small box, though, weighing 3 to 5 pounds will set you back $125. 

M: Plus shipping. 

S: Plus shipping. 

M: Yikes!

S: Yeah it’s pretty- talk about expensive right? 

M: Yeah. 

S: You can order it now and they will send the mangosteens when they’re in season. And we’re going to put the links in the show notes just in case you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket… but I don’t think I’m going to be signing up any time soon. 

M: Me either. Mangosteen pairs well with other tropical fruits like coconut, lemongrass, banana, and mango.

S: Oh, coconut would be good with it.

M: It really would. I’m kind of surprised we didn’t have coconut in the drink but... Anyway, I bet it’s really good in a salad or in desserts. And, of course, a margarita.  

S: We’ve posted photos of the fruit, we posted the nutrient information, and the recipe for the mangosteen margarita that we are drinking in our show notes so check it out at yournutritionprofs.com.

M: Thanks for joining us today for our discussion of the Queen of Fruits! We hope you can find and try a fresh mangosteen yourself or get some in juice or powder form! You should definitely try the mangosteen margarita, even the non-alcoholic version would be tasty! And if you do, let us know about your experience. 

S: We would love to hear about it. Join us next time when we’ll be answering another interesting nutrition question. Be sure to like, review, and subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts so that you don’t miss an episode!

Both: Class dismissed.

S: We hope you enjoyed this episode. You can find the show notes and a list of sources on our website, yournutritionprofs.com. 

M: Your homework is to follow us at your nutrition profs on Instagram and to listen to our next episode. You can listen on Amazon Prime, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere podcasts are found. We’d appreciate it if you’d “like” us, write a review, subscribe, and invite your family and friends to join us too. 

S: If you have a nutrition or health question you’d like answered, let us know! We may even do a show about it! Send an email to yournutritionprofs@gmail.com or click on the “Contact Us” page on our website.

M: Thanks to Brian Pittman for creating our artwork. You can find him on instagram @BrianPittman77

Both: See you next time!