Mangosteen
Feb 16, 2025
Mangosteen
What is it?
Mangosteen is a tropical plant mainly found in Southeast Asia.
What is it used for?
In traditional eastern medicine, mangosteen is used to heal wounds, treat diarrhea, and improve skin infections. Mangosteen has also been shown to reduce inflammation, stop the growth of some cancer cells, decrease damage of LDL, and decrease infections (bacterial, fungal).
How it works in the body?
Mangosteen may reduce inflammation and damage of LDL..
Safety concerns, side effects, and precautions:
Mangosteen can cause significant lactic acidosis ingestion and exacerbate colitis (in mice).
Interactions with medications:
Mangosteen can act as an antioxidant and interfere with chemotherapy. Could also interact with Cytochrome P450 substrates.
Evidence for or against its different uses:
Mangosteen contains xanthones alpha, betamangostins, and garcinone which can hinder the development of mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Limited research exists on the effect of mangosteen in humans. One animal study may reduce inflammation for asthma.
In vitro, mangosteen may weaken enzymes and LDL production which can reduce damage of LDL [33]. It is important to note that further studies on human subjects are crucial in order to make a clinical claim on the effective-ness of mangosteen on cholesterol.
In animal subjects, isogarcinol, a compound of mangosteen, may exhibit anti-inflammatory effects. Mangosteen xanthones may act as a chemoprotective agent against cancer cells.
In a randomized, double blind, placebo control clinical trial completed in 2015, mangosteen was seen to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
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