the Southeast Asian fruit that's packed with a special class of antioxidants might be making its way to a supermarket or beauty aisle near you. You'll want to get your hands on some-and get some on your hands-as soon as possible.
I was first introduced to mangosteen while traveling in Thailand in the
summer of 2007. It was served to me at an outdoor café in Bangkok
alongside several other plump globes altogether unfamiliar to this New
Yorker. Its rind was half removed, revealing flesh that looked not
unlike a small citrus fruit that had been blanched by the sun. One by
one, I pried its six white segments from their hemisphere of tough
purple hull and savored the elusive, delightful flavor. Sort of like a
lychee, I thought, but subtly more complex. Others have described its
hard-to-pinpoint taste as evocative of peaches, clementines and mangoes (no relation).
I felt at once enlightened and deprived. Why did I have to wait so long
and travel so far to find something so lovely and generously sweet? In
retrospect, I blame the USDA, which banned the importation of mangosteen
from Thailand-the number one source-because the fruit harbors foreign
plant pests. In July 2007, perhaps at the very moment I was discovering
the succulent fruit for myself, the FDA ended the ban, on the condition
that all shipments be irradiated to kill insects before entering the country.
The U.S. imported 730 tons of mangosteen from Thailand in 2013 (for
comparison, we bring in millions of tons of bananas annually), with
smaller amounts coming from Mexico, Hawaii and the Caribbean, where the
growing season is a scant six to 10 weeks from June to August. Though
fully legal today, they are hard to find and they tend to fly from store
shelves quickly despite hefty price tags. As we enter
summer, when it's easiest to find mangosteens, a 10-pound carton from
Hawaii is going for $40 wholesale in San Francisco. Comparable hauls
from Thailand are selling for north of $50 there, and $65 in Los
Angeles.
Mangosteen trees can only be grown in certain environments. They
require high humidity and rainfall and can't survive in temperatures
below 40 degrees or above 100 degrees. And they're stubborn. "The first
fruit may take 8 years or, some say, as long as 15 years to appear the
first time," explains Ian Crown, a grower in Puerto Rico and owner of
the highly coveted url mangosteen.com.
"Mine took mostly six to eight years to flower and produce their first
fruit. I have one other species on my farm that took 12 years."
Fortunately, Crown continues, they have a decent shelf-life. "The rind
hardens in the first few days and can protect the delicate arils, the
edible part, from further damage. In a fridge, you can get two weeks but
they are usually eaten long before that." You can find the fruits of
his labor in Whole Foods stores across the contiguous 48.
Their haunting sweetness is not the only thing that makes mangosteens
such a hot commodity. The fruit is also one of the highest in xanthones,
a type of polyphenol only found in a handful of plants, which has been shown in some studies
to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Mangosteens
contain at least 68 distinct xanthones-50 in the rind alone-the
most-studied of which is alpha-mangostin. They have long been used in
traditional medicine in Southeast Asia.
The soothing, calming and antioxidant effects have attracted cosmetic companies such as Lather, which just launched its Mangosteen & Green Tea Hand Lotion, sourcing fruit from India and Thailand. Mangosteen extracts are also used in Origins VitaZing SPF 15 moisturizer, Fresh's luxurious mangosteen oval soap and the Super Fruits anti-aging skincare line from 100% Pure.
Naturally, there are also a host of health drinks touting the benefits of the purple powerhouse. One of the newest is Vemma Renew, which uses a proprietary blend of extracts from mangosteen pulp and rind, green tea and aloe vera. Even Lipton and Snapple have gotten in on the mangosteen trend.
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