Garcinia mangostana L.

Mangosteen Cultivation:
Issues and remedies

Dr.Rincy K Abraham
Subject Matter Specialist (Horticulture)
Mangosteen - “Ambrosia of gods”
Food of GOD
- excellent flavour of its flesh defies
comparison with that of any fruit.
(Garcinia mangostana L.)
Only fruit in which glucose is readily
available form-so instant energy to
the body.
Popularly called - “The queen of
fruits “
 Origin & Spread of Mangosteen
- Belongs to Garcinia - a widespread
economically important genus of 400 species

-Originated in Sunda Islands (Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia

and Malaysia.) and the Mollucas (Eastern Indonasia )
Thailand
9700 acres (4000 ha)
Malaysia
Indonesia
Siam Brunei

India
Ceylon
Ceylon / Sri Lanka from Malaya Peninsula in 1800 AD

India (1818)
Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew served as a
centre for further spread
First fruiting in green house in England in 1955

From Jawa

USDA W. Indies Honduras Gautemala

(United Fruit Co.)
India – Cultivation first attempted in
- Bengal
- Bombay (Mumbai)
- Madras (Chennai)
- Kerala

Tamil Nadu - The Nilgiris

- 1200 – 3500 ft
- Hills of Thirunelveli
 Kerala

- Pathanamthitta
- Kottayam
- Thrissur (Pariyaram a small village in Chalakkudy)
In these places fruit harvest is in May and
early June

- Wayanad – harvest in Aug - Sept

The tree grows
beautifully (conical
shape) bears leathery
leaves and violet
purple fruits.
So it is also used as
Accent plants in lawn
and other landscapes
A fully grown tree yields not less than a
thousand fruits
The canopy volume is directly linked with its
productivity or in other words the better the
growth more the yield.
 The major factor in its cultivation is
the availability of water.

The only fruit crop which lack root

hairs and hence the available roots forages
the soil for water and nutrients.

This is also the major reason why the

crop comes up extremely well in the low
lands and areas very near to the river
banks.
 Climate
 Best – Warm humid troipics
 Temp. – Ideal –18-360C
 Temp. > 400C – Leaf scorching occurs
 Temp. < 120C – Cannot withstand

 Rainfall – Well spread rains as in South-East

Asiatic countries – best
 Require an uninterrupted water supply with a
short dry season of 15-30 days, the latter
initiating flowering.
Female flowers are solitary, paired, or
rarely 3 at apices of branchlets
The fruits - botanically a berry – Derived
from a single ovary of an individual flower.
Borne as short bunches or branchlets on
the external periphery of the canopy.
Fruit development

 Parthenocarpic fruits-
 Parthenocarpy literally meaning ‘virgin fruit’
 Fruit devpt. Without the union of male and female
gametes are called parthenocarpy
 Parthenocarpy occurs due to reasons like aborted
embryos ,genetic disorder ,self-
incompatibility ,application of growth regulators like G
A.
 The fruits on a dry weight
basis are made up of
pulp 20%, rind 37%, seed
26%, calyx with peduncle
17%.

The fleshy edible part around the seed is

botanically the aril and forms the most important
economic part of the fruit.
The fleshy aril is segmented or comprises of lobes
resembling a tangerine.
It is snow white tantalizingly sweet and extremely
refreshing due to instant supply of glucose and
fructose.
Selecting a mangosteen fruit for table purposes
 Choose those with the highest number of
stigma lobes at the apex,
 These have the highest number of fleshy
segments and accordingly the fewest seeds.
 As a thumb rule the number of stigmatic lobes
always correspond to number of segments of the
flesh.
 The seeds are sometimes eaten alone after
boiling or roasting.
Mangosteen –young fruits
The fruit is
used mostly
as a desert.
The flesh
has been
described to
melt in the
mouth like a
bit of ice
cream.
 The nutritional value per 100gm of edible portion
(Chau kay Ming,1951 and Morton,1987)

Calories - 60-63 international units

Moisture - 80.2-84.9g
Protein - 0.5-0.6g
Fat - 0.1-0.6g
Total carbohydrate - 14.3-15.6g
Total sugars - 16.4-16.8g
Fibre - 5.0-5.1g
Ash - 0.2-0.23g
Calcium - 0.01-8mg
Phosphorous - 0.02-12.0mg
Iron - 0.2-0.8mg
Reducing sugar - 3.86g
Non reducing sugar - 12.56g
 Canning

In the form of segments (Siddappa and Bhatia,1954).

But they are said to lose their delicate flavour
especially if pasteurized for as much as 10mts.

Tests have shown that it is best to use a 40%

syrup and sterilize for only 5mts.

The more acid fruits are best for preserving.

 Jam

Seedless segments are extracted

and boiled with an equal amount
of sugar and a few cloves for 15-
20 mts.

Then put into glass jars of standard

dimensions and sealed air tight as
in the case of other fruits.
Preserve

In the Philipines a
preserve is made by
boiling the segments in
brown sugar, and seeds
may be included to
enrich the flavour.

This is finally filled in

standard jars to standard
weights.
Juice and Squash

Pulp alone is separated out

from the seeds and crushed
homogeneously.

Some preservatives are

added, and filtered which can
be used instantaneously.

On the other hand the

macerated pulp without
filtration can be used as
squash.
 Jelly

 The rind is rich in pectin.

 After treatment with 6% NaCl to eliminate

the astringency principles the rind is made
into a purplish jelly by adding appropriate
quantity of sugar and cooked till it has
reached the correct stage of consistency of
jelly formation.
 Medicinal uses
Immense medicinal application.

Used to strengthen the appetite

To cure the indigestion.

In ayurvedic medicine the sliced and

the dried rind powder is mainly used
to treat inflammation and diorrhoea
(Balasubramaniam and Rajagopalan,1988).

Made into an ointment it is applied on

Excema and other skin disorders.
The rind decoction is taken
to get relieved from
diorrhoea and cystitis and
gonnorhoea.

It is also applied externally

as an astringent lotion.

A portion of the rind is

steeped in water overnight
and the infusion given as a
remedy for chronic diarrhea
in adults and children.
Natural food colour / pigments

The rind is rich in red anthocyanin pigments.

The major component is cyanidin 3-

glucoside (Du and Francis, 1997).
This is used as natural food colour and has
a potential for exploitation as the quantity
produced from the rind is very high and the
intensity of colouration is very strong.
Soap
S.W.O.T
Strengths

Climate of the state fits into the requirements

Large area available where it can be grown as
mixed crop in coconut gardens & homegardens
A very strong demand
Very high demand as an export commodity
Very low cost of cultivation
Weakness

Availability and requirement of water

Lack of organized trading channels
Long gestation period (Lim,1984, Richards,1990,
Wiebel et al., 1995)

Slow growth mechanism (Hume, 1974, Almeyda

and Martin,1976, Wiebel et al., 1992 and 1995)

Vegetative propagation compounds the

slow growth which results in reduced canopy
spread and low yields (Wiebel et al., 1991 and 1995)
 Opportunities

Large potential for export

Very high internal demand
Scope for diversification of fruit products
Scope for byproducts from waste like rind
for xanthones, natural colours and
medicines
Threats

Weak trading and disorganized monopsonic

system

Gummosis

Translucent flesh disorder - which is

fortunately not a problem in our area.
Cultivation
 Planting Material

Seeds are formed Apomictically - True to the

Mother plant

Seedling growth in initial years very slow –

NO root hairs

Grafting with wild mangosteen root stalk –

Incompatibility problems
Seed Characters
 4-8 triangular lobes in a fruit
 May be seedless or 1-5 viable seeds/fruit
 Endocarp surrounding the seeds is the edible part ;flesh is 31% of
total fruit wt.
 Seeds viable for 3-5 weeks in the ripened fruit after harvesting;
viable only up to 5 days after removal from the fruit
 Seeds sprout 20-22 days after sowing and will be completed within
45 days.
 Seeds from trees of 25-50 years shows better germination
 Soaking seeds in 2% Pseudomonas liquid for 24 h expedites
germination & enhances germination %age
 Overall view of the seedlings raised from the mother plants of
different age groups (years) in mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.)

<25 25-50

50-75 >75
 Activation of seedling growth in using
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and
Azospirillum

Best treatment for activating the seedling growth

with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and
Azospirillum inoculations were combinations of
1. Glomus fasciculatum 5 g + Azospirillum 10 g +
single super phosphate 10 g
Mangosteen seedlings
 Soil Preferences
Best Types – reclaimed alluvium with silt deposits
- Requires large amounts of organic matter
- In central Kerala crop is normally grown only
organically and cowdung is used as manure
- River banks and catchment areas ideal
- Favours high water table
- Can withstand flooding for few days
-Soil PH - 4.5-7.0
 Planting Operations
Season : May - June

location : Plains and highlands –(High lands produces bigger size fruits)

Soil type : well drained sandy loam and laterite soil

Elevation : 0-2500 ftMSL

Sunlight requirement : Requires semi shade initially, partial sunlight to full

sunlight.

Pit size – 90 x 90 x 90 cm

Select 3year old plant for faster fruiting – Higher cost

Spacing – 9 m x 9 m ( canopy width attained by mature plants 7-7.5m)

50 plants/acre

Apply FYM and Rock Phosphate as basal dose (5 kg + 250 g)

Training and Pruning in Mangosteen
• Mangosteen usually ends its juvenile stage when the trunk has 16 pairs of
laterals and it then grows into a pyramidal crown. Until
then no pruning
is needed except to remove broken or dead branches.
• Trees produce periodic flushes of shoot growth, up to 6 per year when
vegetative and only 1 or 2 per year when bearing.
No pruning should
be done when there are flowers, fruits or flushes of shoot
growth.
• Height of the mature tree and the fact that fruits are borne singly makes
harvesting difficult. It is useful to head back the plant to a height of
8-10m allowing greater expansion of lateral branches.
 YIELD

 Fruiting - 7-9 yrs after planting the seedlings

 15-20 yr old trees yield 500 fruits/tree
 30 yr old trees-1000-2000 fruits
 Max. 3000 fruits/tree in Kurtalam,TN
 Highdensity planting possible in states like T.N.,
Karnataka etc.(15x15’ spacing)
Mangosteen fruits Harvesting
Pests& disease problems
 Not much problems
 Leaf eating caterpillars ; pink disease,
 thread blight
 Oozing of creamy yellow latex from branches , stem
&fruits exposed to strong sun-a physiological disorder
known as ‘’Gamboge’’
 Stony hard fruits-physiological disorder
Leaf eating caterpillar attack
Leaf eating caterpillars
Pink disease-R.solani
Pink disease
 Gumboge Disorder

Presence of Latex in fruits making fruits not fit for consumption

Reasons for Gumboge
1 – Stress to plants during periods of fruit
development
2- Mechanical injury during harvesting
3. Over exposure of fruits to sun light
causing burn to fruit rind
4. Calcium and Boron Deficiency in Plants