Health Benefits of Mangosteen

The health benefits of mangosteen fruit. What are some of the mangosteen side effects?

Mangosteen is one versatile tropical tree. In Ghana, mangosteen twigs are used as chewsticks. In China, its fruit rind is used to dye leather. In Thailand, its wood is used to make spears and in carpentry. Traditional Chinese medicine used dried mangosteen fruit to treat dysentery and eczema. It is even used in preparing cures for diarrhea, bladder infection, and gonorrhea and skin rashes.

Today, scientists have discovered that the fruit contains some powerful antioxidants that hold excellent potential of fighting major diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular conditions and diabetes.

Mangosteen fruit is amongst the recent addition to the growing list of super fruits. It is harvested from the small and slow growing tropical evergreen tree, which natively grows in the Pacific regions, Asia and Africa. Large production of this fruit is concentrated in South East Asia, where it thrives all year round. With the recent discoveries on the pharmaceutical properties and health benefits of mangosteen, its production has spread over Australia and other Pacific islands.

Xanthone is a powerful type of antioxidant that is known for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-cancer benefits. Incidentally, it takes two of the most powerful and natural antioxidants ever discovered; the Alpha Mangostin and Gamma mangosteen. The mangosteen fruit was found to carry these two powerful xanthones. This explains many of the significant health benefits of mangosteen this tropical fruit possesses.

But while mangosteen shows excellent potentials for many life-threatening diseases, it comes with positive and negative side effects. One of which is its possible interference to normal blood clotting. People who are taking Coumadin medications must take caution in eating or taking mangosteen-based supplements to fully enjoy its health benefits.

Some of the people who began mangosteen supplement experienced loose stools or constipation. Loose stools are initially experienced by those who took more than one ounce servings of mangosteen supplement. On the other hand, those who are diagnosed of constipation-predominant types of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and diabetic patients with gastroparesis complication, taking more than one ounce of mangosteen supplement may worsen the constipation.

Other possible side effects may be caused by food-drug interactions. For instance, taking large quantity of mangosteen juice may affect the mode of action and efficacy of certain drugs. To those who are taking cancer therapy drugs, consulting a physician before starting a mangosteen regimen would be helpful in optimizing the free-radical-fighting properties of the drugs and of the fruit. This is because fruit juices like mangosteen juice can either speed up or slow down the liver-s drug detoxification activities. They affect certain elements of the P450 enzyme system, which is greatly involved in the drug-detoxification process. Apparently, there are no reported cases of adverse food-drug interactions as far as the mangosteen fruit is concerned.

The consumption of mangosteen fruit and mangosteen products is generally safe both for children and adults. However, it may not be as safe to people with pre-existing health conditions. It may cause adverse effects to hyper-sensitive individuals, especially those who have certain fruit allergies. These effects are almost always limited to headaches, itchy skin rashes, transient and minor joint pains and never cause respiratory problems and other life-threatening conditions.

Back to Benefits of Fruits

Return from Health Benefits of Mangosteen to the iBenefits home