1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mangosteen

MANGOSTEEN (Garcinia Mangostana), a tree belonging to the order Guttiferae. It is a native of the Malay Peninsula, and is extensively cultivated in southern Tenasserim, and in some places in the Madras presidency. Poor results have followed the attempt to introduce it to other countries; and A. de Candolle refers to it as one of the most local among cultivated plants both in its origin, habitation and cultivation. It belongs to a family in which the mean area of the species is very restricted. It is an evergreen about 20 ft. high, and is somewhat fir-like in general form, but the leaves are large, oval, entire, leathery and glistening. Its fruit, the much-valued mangosteen, is about the size and shape of an orange, and is somewhat similarly partitioned, but is of a reddish-brown to chestnut colour. Its thick rind yields a very astringent juice, rich in tannin, and containing a gamboge-like resin. The soft and juicy pulp is snow-white or rose-coloured, and of delicious flavour and perfume. It is wholesome, and may be administered in fever.

The genus Garcinia is a genus of trees containing about fifty species in the tropics of the Old World, and usually yielding a yellow gum-resin (gamboge). G. Morella, a native of India, yields the true gamboge.