Mangosteens - Queen of Tropical Fruits

The mangosteen was one of the fruits we had to study in the secondary school science syllabus. I have such fond memories of the fruit and those student days.

The Purple Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana),is a tropical evergreen tree,  and is definitely native of the Malay Peninsular and the islands around South China Sea.

Interesting facts about the mangosteen can be easily learned when the fruit season comes. I learned that the raised ridges on the bottom of the exocarp, raised ridges (remnants of the stigma), arranged like spokes of a wheel, correspond to the number of aril sections. So as we do not like to eat big seeds we usually try to buy mangosteens with more ridges. Sometimes there are eight of them. More often there are only five. So when there are only five arils you get one with a big seed.

In the past I knew of young men who always tried to impress pretty young girls by asking them to guess how many arils there were in the fruit.  The person who could say the correct number of arils would get a prize. More often than not the clever boys often won the bet. And the girls would be impressed.You can try this trick next year when the mangosteen season arrives.


That's a good way to learn how to count too.

One friend once reminded me that I used to get free mangosteens from his uncle. Did I remember that? Well he reminded me that I used to trick  his uncle who did not know the scientific fact by saying that if I guessed correctly  how many arils in the fruitI would like to have two mangosteens to eat. Well I cannot remember how many free mangosteens I had. (shy lah) But I continued as a young teenager to think that it was advantageous to know science.

Opening a mangosteen is a local skill. One does not really need to have a sharp knife to cut open the fruit. However in restaurants the waiter may first score the shell with a knife and then pry open the fruit to show the white and succulent arils

But when you like to try eating mangosteens as you walk along the village paths you can easily open your fruits. You can hold the fruit in both hands and then give the fruit a twist. The thumbs can crack the fruit easily and you will have two halves of the fruit. Not only that you will  even(when your skill allows) get the arils on one half of the fruit and the top half comes off quite easily!

However you have to be careful. Like when you go out to eat crabs you usually wear a black shirt or t-shirt. So do likewise when you wish to enjoy mangosteens because the skin can leave a bright purple stain. Some hotels actually do not allow mangosteens in the rooms. That's the reason.


Mangosteen being the "Queen of Tropical Fruits" can probably be attributed to one fruit explorer David Fairchild during the reign of Queen Victoria.

The juvenile mangosteen fruit, which does not require fertilization to form (see agamospermy), first appears as pale green or almost white in the shade of the canopy. As the fruit enlarges over the next two to three months, the exocarp color deepens to darker green. During this period, the fruit increases in size until its exocarp is 6–8 centimeters in outside diameter, remaining hard until a final, abrupt ripening stage.



Mangosteens have very thick and pretty and easily identifiable shiny leaves.


You can see there are six ridges at the bottom of this fruit.

The young fruits are well hidden by the green leaves. So often you have to lift leaves up to see the new fruits. It gives you a very satisfying feeling when you can find lots of them under the leaves. At this stage no squirrels are around. They know without any one sending out smoke signals.(Smile)

The fruits on the trees do not ripe all at the same time. So this is nice about the mangosteens. Are the earlier fruits less sweet than the later fruits? May be you will have to find that out. this is an early ripened fruit for my picking. (My left hand)


Here is another one but not quite ripe yet. I will leave it alone. There are lots of mangosteens at knee level. So I had to squat to have a look at them. The branches start growing from about 2 feet.


(This is shy Roland standing next to a mangosteen tree and he has just plucked a fruit for me - from a branch that is chest high and under all those leaves there were many ripening fruits. A ripe fruit comes off the branch easily...thus "ripe for the picking". Actually at first I saw only green mangosteens but his sharp eyes could already see the ripe ones. )

Hope we can all enjoy mangosteens for many years to come. And I do hope that other countries in the world can enjoy this tropical fruit.

Source :

Wikipedia
JPS Farm in Bekenu.
 Rahman (our oil palm and fruit expert )

(P/s Thanks to Jeffery and his friends I had a lovely walk in the 20 acre farm one beautiful Saturday not too long ago.
Pp/s Apologies to Jay if my mangosteens appear earlier than his posting)