name: Purple Mangosteen
flavor_db_name_variants: purple mangosteen
source: foodb
status: draft
food_db_id: Purple mangosteen
id: 406
name_scientific: Garcinia mangostana
description: The purple mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), colloquially known simply as mangosteen, is a tropical evergreen tree believed to have originated in the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas of Indonesia. It grows mainly in Southeast Asia, and also in tropical South American countries such as Colombia, in the state of Kerala in India and in Puerto Rico, where the tree has been introduced. The tree grows from 6 to 25 m (19.7 to 82.0 ft) tall. The fruit of the mangosteen is sweet and tangy, juicy, somewhat fibrous, with fluid-filled vesicles (like the flesh of citrus fruits), with an inedible, deep reddish-purple colored rind (exocarp) when ripe. In each fruit, the fragrant edible flesh that surrounds each seed is botanically endocarp, i.e., the inner layer of the ovary. Seeds are almond-shaped and sized. The edible endocarp of the mangosteen has the same shape and size as a tangerine 4?6 centimetres (1.6?2.4 in) in diameter, but is white. The circle of wedge-shaped segments contains 4?8, rarely 9 segments, the larger ones harbouring apomictic seeds that are unpalatable unless roasted. The purple mangosteen belongs to the same genus as the other, less widely known, mangosteens, such as the button mangosteen (G. prainiana) or the charichuelo (G. madruno).
itis_id: 21484
wikipedia_id: Purple_mangosteen
picture_file_name: 411.jpg
picture_content_type: image/jpeg
picture_file_size: 63989
picture_updated_at: 2012-04-20T09:44:21.000Z
legacy_id: 438
food_group: Fruits
food_subgroup: Tropical fruits
food_type: Type 1
created_at: 2011-02-09T00:37:40.000Z
updated_at: 2019-05-14T18:05:24.000Z
creator_id: null
updater_id: null
export_to_afcdb: false
category: specific
ncbi_taxonomy_id: 58228
export_to_foodb: true
public_id: FOOD00406