Talk:Mangosteen
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[edit] Endorsement
It is encyclopedic and imporant to know knowledge about praise and endorsements. You are wrong to have reverted it
[edit] Taste
What does it taste like? An encyclopedia article about a fruit should probably mention something about the taste. Besides, I'm curious. =) --BeSherman 13:03, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
I added a description of the taste. La Gringa 06:16, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Do your research
Before you start badmouthing this fruit, take a quick look on PubMed.gov. You will find that there is a substantial amount of legitimate research articles from peer-reviewed journals about this fruit. I am not commenting on any companies that sell any mangosteen products, I am just stating that there is real research out there that does indeed demonstrate that the mangosteen has health benefits. There is more compelling evidence for this fruit than for some pharmaceuticals. Also, you should note that the journal articles are in no way tied to any of the companies, and quite a few of them were written before any mangosteen supplement was ever brought to market. I am all for removing marketing and propoganda from Wikipedia, but you cannot let your personal biases against companies cloud your judgement about what the scientific community has put forth in their research. I am not standing up for marketing or any business/company, nor am I confirming what anyone has written about mangosteen's health benefits, but I am standing up for legitimate science. I am also not saying that all research articles are fact or flawless; however, you will find that the xanthones in the Garcinia mangostana are COX-inhibitors as well as histamine and serotonin inhibitors. You will also find that the xanthones have shown anti-cancer/anti-tumor properities in vitro, as well as being antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral. Take a look for yourself, and you will find these journal articles. ARA 02:56, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
They once thought radium was good for you too. I'm not saying its anywhere near as harmful as that was but it just goes to show being snake oil salesmen is a profession that stands the test of time. CiXeL
[edit] Mangosteen aril "fruit" nutrition and antioxidant qualities are poor
If one looks carefully at the structure of mangosteen's fruit that is preferred for human consumption, it's clear immediately that the white flesh -- botanically, an aril seed covering -- is without pigmentation (read that as absent of antioxidants which are phenols with defensive roles usually on the outside of a fruit or vegetable).
Xango juice is made (apparently, as the method is proprietary) in a 3 step process. 1) juice is squeezed from the edible aril as a base for Xango; 2) juices of several other fruits are added; 3) xanthones from the inedible purple pericarp are added for color and antioxidant value.
This recent paper takes a factual look at mangosteen aril nutrient quality (poor, nearly absent), aril antioxidant value (must be nearly zero, as the plant does not need antioxidant protection deep inside the overall fruit structure, so the flesh is without pigmentation), and research underway on xanthones (an adolescent research field by comparison to other antioxidant phytochemicals).
http://www.npicenter.com/anm/templates/newsATemp.aspx?articleid=17613&zoneid=43
Conclusion: there isn't much to get excited about concerning Xango. A consumer would get more nutrition and probably equal antioxidant value drinking tomato, grape or cranberry juice at prices of what?, $2-3 per liter? whereas Xango costs about 10 times more? --Paul144 16:42, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] NPOV
Much of this page sounds like "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" – hardly encyclopedical. Mangosteen is currently being marketed. I'm trying to tone down the advertizing language and I'm removing dubious statements taken from the referenced links, where they appear with no source other than some MD's opinion.
I will also remove the claims about "many times the antioxidant capacity of popular vitamins" which I could not back up in gov or edu sites: [1], [2]. — Sebastian (talk) 06:41, 2005 Jun 22 (UTC)
I would agree with that. there is alot of hype surrounding the mangosteen due to xango. the mangosteen rind is mostly tannins. I'd like say thank you for all you wikipedians out there working hard to remove the Xango spam that routinely shows up on this article. CiXeL
I added in the info on the frozen version and the Oahu irradiation facility.
I simply CANNOT wait to see mangosteen juice die off like the noni juice fad so the snake oil salesmen stop. CiXeL
The USDA has published a standard test of antioxidant value called ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) that is used to rate antioxidant quality of foodstuffs, nutritional supplements and nutritional minerals (like Selenium.) Even One-A-Day and Centrum vitamins now state that they have antioxidant value.
We hear about tomatoes having lycopene, which is a food antioxidant. Good for heart health, and all that. Can I write an article about ORAC comparisons of various fruit and vegetable foodstuffs? Most red and dark berry juices have specified ORAC values (red grape wine, pomegranate juice, noni juice, mangosteen juice, cherry juice) all are high ORAC value foodstuffs.
Reference on high ORAC foodstuffs and the healthy benefits, from United States Department of Agriculture. From the article: Foods that score high in an antioxidant assay called ORAC may protect cells and their components from damage by oxygen radicals, according to studies of animals and human blood. ORAC measures the total antioxidant power of foods and other chemical substances. Early findings suggest that eating plenty of high-ORAC fruits and vegetables—such as spinach and blueberries—may help slow the processes associated with aging in both body and brain.
[edit] Whole fruit
I recently purchased some of these as whole fruit in NZ. Given NZ's extremely stringent phytosanitary standards which would probably be more stringent then those in the US in general, I suspect the mention of them being illegal to import in the US may be untrue. I don't know where these originated from (perhaps Australia) or how they were treated (perhaps irradiated although irradiated mangos that I've bought have been clearly labelled) however I'm guessing they can be imported (whether they are or not I don't know). They were extremely expensive of course... Nil Einne 06:17, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
They came from australia probably around innisfail/cairns. (I have a friend who is trying to start a mangosteen and durian plantation there). Not sure if theyre irradiated. They certainly are illegal to import into the US if they are not irradiated due to fruit fly larvae that can sit under the crown on the fruit. Thailand will be exporting the first irradiated ones to california in the coming months. CiXeL
[edit] Links
The question was asked in a check-in comment why we're keeping the montosogardens.com and proscitech.com.au links if the xango one is inappropriate. Personally, I have no problem with the montosogardens.com ("Montoso Gardens is a... botanical garden, tropical flower and fruit farm, and nursery with over 600 species of exotic tropical flowers, fruits, nuts, spices, and palms. ") & proscitech.com.au ("Serving Light, Electron Microscopy, general Science & Technology Laboratories in Australasia") links. Both of the pages linked to are actually pages for the mangosteen within a larger site, and not sites dedicated to selling mangosteen fruit juice via multi-level marketing ("The first company to harness the real power of the exotic Garcinia mangostana, XanGo not only leads the mangosteen-based dietary supplement market—we created it."). I feel WP:EL supports my interpretation, but I'm willing to discuss it here. -- Steven Fisher 17:14, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
- You're absolutely correct. Information on websites from gardens, museums and the like is routinely used - the idea being that they're not really pushing a product in the manner of a true commercial site. The other link at proscitech goes to an isolated portion of the site that details information from a book. If we called that a commercial site, everything from webhosts that prefix their domain name would be out, and that would be silly. Shell babelfish 21:29, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
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- Honestly, I got the impression that the only criteria that user was using for "commercial" was whether there was a .com in the domain name. I really can't see any other way that the XanGo site is related to the other two. -- Steven Fisher 21:43, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] XanGo link?
Would a link to the XanGo article be appropriate for the See Also section? Why or why not? I'm a bit torn on the subject -- although it promotes XanGo a bit, it also points out additional information about XanGo's marketing campaigns. -- Steven Fisher 16:49, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
- I've been monitoring the XanGo article and I also am torn. I don't want to promote those *unprintables*, but on the other hand, it would be good for potential marks to know it's an MLM scheme. Ask at the Village Pump? Zora 03:58, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Xango LLC Warned by the FDA About Marketing Practices and False Health Claims, Sept 2006
The FDA's take on Xango and any supposed dietary health product marketed with such exhorbitant anti-disease claims that accompany Xango juice is to assess whether the food or beverage qualifies as a "drug".
In other words, if a fruit has sufficient scientific proof that it prevents or cures diseases as Xango marketing material claims, then it must be a drug requiring the long series of expensive research including clinical trials required of any company developing a new drug from biotechnology.
See this warning letter issued to Xango in Sept. 2006 and apparently still under evaluation as there appears to be no further news to date in February 2007.
http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning_letters/g6024d.htm
Xango LLC provides its position as of October 2006
http://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/hotnews/6ah28484.html
This information needs to be written into the Article. The public coming to Wikipedia for facts needs to know issues surrounding the description given here. If we hold mangosteen (that is, any fruit and its juice products) to the stringent standards of the FDA, then the public can be assured whether health claims are valid.
I will give this discussion area a few days for debate before providing an update to the Article, unless someone else would like to take it on. --Paul144 16:27, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] what does it taste like?
what does it taste like? are both the tree and the fruit called mangosteens? -Ravedave 02:05, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Rind is hard or soft?
Near the top of the article it says that the rind is hard. Near the bottom, it says that the rind is soft. I also question the statement that the fruit is usually torn apart rather than cut. That may be true in the field, but at a table, I'm sure it would be served cut due to the staining juices. Additionally the fruit inside is very delicate and can be damaged easily by any pressure on the rind. The pictures in the article, and every picture I've seen of the fruit, show it cut, not torn apart. La Gringa 08:03, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
re: rind. we have a mangosteen tree at home and the rind is hard and soft. Hard on the outside and soft on the inside. It is better to open them by hand rather than by cutting them bec the pressure that your hand exerts just breaks up the outer hard rind really easily then you can just pull the halves apart. Besides, if you use a knife, it might slip and cut you bec. of the hard outer rind. The fruit is not that delicate that it would get damaged by opening the fruit by hand. karen
[edit] Their was/is (?) a picture of a Penis on this site which in no ....
way relates to the Garcinia Mangostana. Even if the name of Mango does signify the Sperm that relates to the reproductive process the fruit undergoes, a Homosapien Penis has nothing to do with this! No empirical evidence has been found linking the Male Genitalia with a Mangosteen.
[edit] Can mangosteen's skin be used/made as an INK?
i need to know for our further experiment..
- The mangosteen pericarp is a dense purple, color given by pigments called phenolics (also called phenols), see the picture gallery[3], with a good discussion there about many aspects of this fruit. As with most plants having deep colors, natural plant pigments have been used for centuries as dyes for fabrics, cosmetics and even the food industry. For example, apparently over several decades until recently, the USDA used juice from black raspberries as a stamp ink for labeling fresh cuts of meat. --Paul144 01:09, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] XanGo
I have removed the majority of the text in the xango section of the article. The first paragraph read like an advertisement for Xango, and the rest of it was just copied and pasted from the xango article. Considering that it really dealt with the FDA/XanGo case, i dont think it was relevant for the article on the fruit. I've left the following text in: Several commercial mangosteen juices are on the public market, primarily in the United States and Canada. One well known juice company is XanGo. I think that will suffice. THE KING 00:06, 20 February 2007 (UTC)
