The CLUSIACEAE, formerly guttifers, are trees or shrubs of tropico-equatorial regions .
The genus Garcinia is well represented in Southeast Asia and India, but Garcinia is also found in Africa and tropical America including the West Indies.
GARCINIA MANGOSTANA, like many CLUSIACEAE, have a laticiferous network that carries oleoresins. Some oleoresins (gum-guts) are, or have been, exploited for their physicochemical (insulating, adhesive, protective) or medicinal properties.
Garcinia fruits are globular « berries » that sometimes contain an edible aril.
The mangosteen fruit, Garcinia mangostana, is native to the Indian region and is known for its delicious fruit, the mangosteen, considered one of the best tropical fruits. It is a globose berry 3 to 7 cm in diameter, whose envelope (epicarp), quite resistant, is often purple, sometimes marked with scars.
The fruit is slightly lobed, which corresponds to the inner edible segments.
The white pulp of the fruit is juicy, tart, fragrant, and contains some oblong seeds.
Garcinia Gummi-gutta formerly G.cambogia (Malabar tamarind ), is now exploited for its small fruits (inedible) whose bark contains a significant percentage of Hydroxycitric acid.
This organic acid has been considered for a number of years as a substance to lose weight without effort.
This tree is also native to the Indian region such as Garcinia hanburyi, the main supplier of » camboge ».
GARCINIA MANGOSTEEN MALABAR TAMARIND HYDROXICITRIC ACID SLIMMING REGIME
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES
Garcinia mangostana
The mangosteen’s scented pulp contains organic acids, easily assimilable sugars and water-soluble vitamins.
The bark of this fruit, as well as that of the tree, contain phenolic compounds with anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory properties, the « xanthones » mangostines.
Japanese researchers have recently re-studied these compounds, known since the 19 th century. They are easily extracted by a hydroalcoholic solution.
This study demonstrates that the alcoholic tincture at 40 ° of the fruit bark is antiallergic by inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis and by an antihistaminic effect.
Garcinia gummi-gutta (= cambogia) and Garcinia indica
The fruit peels of these two species contain a lot of hydroxycitric acid.
This organic acid studied, since the years 60-70, disrupts the transformation of glucose into fatty acid by inhibiting an intracellular enzyme.
It is known that glucose (sugar) assimilated during digestion is either used immediately, or stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles, or converted into fat and stored in the fatty tissue.
Garcinia extracts, in vitro and in animals, prevent the accumulation of fat, seem to reduce appetite and at the same time increase glucose consumption (thermogenesis).
Unfortunately in humans it does not work as well. The results of the studies in overweight people are erratic: moderate to almost nonexistent weight loss.
Garcinia hanburyi
The gum gum produced by this tree is a traditional purgative in veterinary medicine, too drastic for its use in humans.
This West African tree used by traditional healers contains many substances with interesting pharmacological potential: flavones, xanthones, benzophenones.
Garcinia cola extracts are anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiviral, antidiabetic and liver protectors.
USES
Garcinia cambogia, G. mangostana and G. indica have all been used for a long time in traditional Indian, Thai and Malaysian medicine, as well as in Ayurvedic medicine.
The most common preparation is the decoction of fruit bark: anti-inflammatory (rheumatism), to regulate intestinal transit (dysentery, chronic colonic disorders), to clean wounds and ulcers, to get rid of intestinal parasites (a garcinia extract was a time marketed in France under the name of « amibiasine »).
Garcinia fruits, or their extracts, are often used in Indian cuisine as a condiment, similar to tamarind.
It is estimated that extracts of Garcinia cambogia concentrated in hydroxycitric acid or its calcium salt can help to lose weight:
- When the diet is too rich in carbohydrates (sugars, sweets, bread, pasta, rice, potato etc.). Garcinia extract does not work when the diet is too rich in fat.
- When one absorbs the extracts of garcinia rich in hydroxycitric acid very shortly before eating (1/2 hour to an hour before the meal)
- When the daily dose is high enough: at least the equivalent of 1500 mg of hydroxycitric acid per day in several doses depending on the meal; in some studies the daily dose approaches 3 g per day and even 4.5 g per day.
- Avoiding a diet rich in insoluble fiber (such as bran) that prevents, it seems, the intestinal absorption of hydroxycitric acid or its salts.
On the market are pure extracts of garcinia, or dietary supplements that contain it, often in combination with other substances or plant extracts for weight loss.
Pure garcinia extracts should be preferred as the weight-loss supplements do not usually contain enough to be effective. In addition, certain substances associated with garcinia extracts may have harmful side effects (chromium, caffeine, ephedrine).
To lose weight using garcinia extracts, remember that you must follow a lean diet, without fat meat or oily fish, without supplementation in insoluble fiber (wheat bran), by regularly exercising.
It takes at least 4 to 6 weeks to get a weight loss that can, in the best cases, reach 10 to 15% of body weight.
CAUTION
HYDROXYCITRIC ACID can cause dry mouth, nausea, gastrointestinal discomfort, headaches and might even destroy the testicles after prolonged use.
In May 2012 French pharmacological authorities withdrew the authorization to sell drugs containing Garcinia gummi-gutta (= cambogia) but as dietary supplement it is still authorized.
ABSTRACT
MANGOSTEEN and other Garcinia species
The mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) is a delicious tropical fruit.
Extracts of Garcinia gummi-gutta = Garcinia cambogia, another species, prevent the synthesis of fat and are therefore used as supplements to a slimming diet although their role in slimming treatment is controversial.
Other Garcinia extracts are anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic and may be the source of new antiviral drugs.
Copyright 2023 : Dr Jean-Michel Hurtel
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