Garcinia [genus] (5,440)
Synonyms: Rheedia [genus] L., Verticillaria [genus] Ruiz & Pav.
G. atroviridis (1,258)
G. bancana (678)
G. barteri (233)
G. brasiliensis (484)
Synonyms: Rheedia brasiliensis (Mart.) Planch. & Triana
G . brevirostris (520)
G. cochinchinensis (375)
G. cornea (541)
G. costata (258)
G. cowa (1,281)
G. dives (302)
G. dulcis (1,459)
G. echinocarpa (217)
G. elliotii (299)
G. floribunda (315)
Synonyms: Rheedia floribunda (Miq.) Planch. & Triana
G. forbesii (267)
G. gaudichaudii (354)
G. globulosa (352)
G. gnetoides (340)
G. griffithii (359)
G. gummi-gutta (2,150)
Synonyms: Garcinia cambogia Desr.
G. hanburyi (6,796)
Synonyms: Garcinia morella (Gaetn.) Desr.
G. hombroniana (1,267)
G. hullensis (826)
G. humilis (1,045)
Synonyms: Rheedia lateriflora L.
G. indica (3,364)
G. intermedia (2,108)
Synonyms: Rheedia edulis (Seem.)Triana & Planch., Rheedia intermedia Pittier
G. kajewskii (218)
G. klainea (287)
G. kola (2,454)
G. lancaeafolia (211)
G. lateriflora (405)
G. ledermanii (353)
G. livingstonei (1,975)
G. macrophylla (503)
Synonyms: Garcinia griffithii T. Anders.
G. macrophylla (639)
Synonyms: Rheedia macrophylla (Mart.) Planch. & Tr., Rheedia gardneriana Planch. & Tr.
G. madruno (1,955)
Synonyms: Rheedia madruno Planch. & Triana
G. maingayi (349)
G. malaccensis (471)
G. mangostana (9,946)
G. mannii (1,303)
G. merguensis (1,169)
G. microstigma (287)
G. morella (566)
G. myrtifolia (758)
G. nigrolineata (813)
G. oblongifolia (236)
G. ovalifolia (417)
G. parvifolia (508)
G. pedunculata (570)
G. picrorhiza (431)
G. pictorum (296)
G. planchoni (284)
G. polyantha (381)
G. prainiana (432)
G. pseudoguttifera (563)
G. rostrata (435)
G. sessilis (272)
G. sopsopia (496)
Synonyms: Garcinia paniculata Roxb.
G. sp. (355)
G. tonkinensis (268)
G. vidalii (226)
G. xanthochymus (1,846)
Synonyms: Garcinia pictoria Roxb
G. [balsamifera] (1,135)
Synonyms: Verticillaria balsamifera
G. [benthamiana] (347)
Synonyms: Rheedia benthamiana
G. [longifolia] (334)
Synonyms: Rheedia longifolia
G. [spruceana] (323)
Synonyms: Rheedia spruceana
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia
Garcinia [genus] L. CLUSIACEAE
Synonyms: Rheedia [genus] L., Verticillaria [genus] Ruiz & Pav.
Common names: Gamboge (Hortus) Kandis, Gelugur (Burkill)
Old World tropics; 200 spp. Polygamous trees or shrubs. Lvs. opp., simple, usually thick. Fls. axillary or terminal, sepals & petals 4 or 5, stamens 8 to many, ovary 2-12-celled. Fruit a leathery indehiscent berry, seeds surrounded by pulpy often edible aril. The yellow gum resin of some Asiatic spp., obtained from incisions made in the bark, yields commercial gamboge, used as a artist’s pigment and medicinally as a cathartic. Included in Guttiferae (Hortus Third 1976:494) Rheedia: Trop. Am., Madagascar; 30 spp. Polygamodieocious trees with yellow sap. Lvs. lanceolate or elliptic, leathery, petioles with a margined pit on upper side at base. Fls. small, yellowish green, sol. or the male fls. in axillary clusters, sepals 2, petals 4, stamens many in male fls., few and in a single series around the disc in bisex. fls. Fruit a berry with a leathery covering, 1-celled, seeds 1-5, enclosed in an edible, aril-like pulp. In Guttiferae (Hortus Third 1976:947) Trop. Asia, Polynesia, S Africa. Evergreen trees & shrubs. Fls. sol. or few. In Guttiferae (Griffiths 1994:492) Tropics esp. Asia, S Africa; 400 spp. Stamens free, united in bundles or in a common mass. Berry with arillate seed. Some have useful timber. In Guttiferae (Willis 1973:477) Rheedia: Cent. & trop. S Am., W Indies, Madagascar; 45 spp. (Willis 1973:989) Esp. Asia, S Africa [but Rheedia, now Garcinia, is in trop. Am.]. Usually slow-growing. Fls. usually nocturnal, highly scented. Berries with fleshy endocarp around seeds, often edible; some parthenocarpic. Resins given pigments incl. gamboge; some waxes and timbers. Some wild spp. and also G. mangostana in cult. are apomictic, embryos without fertilization. In Guttiferae (Mabberley 1998:293) Old World tropics. Trees or shrubs. Wood usually hard, but the best timber spp. are not Malayan. Timber color yellow to reddish brown, usually good texture, but liable to split; the better spp. are fairly durable. Many spp. have edible fruit. Sometimes as in the mangosteen, the pulp is encased in a hardened outer shell. More usually as in the Kandis, fruits have a thin skin, like a plum but with more than one seed. Acid fruits of some spp. serve as a subst. for tamarind [Tamarindus, Leguminosae] in curries; dried or salted to preserve them. Also used to fix dyes in the arts. Kandis is the Malay name for many spp. with edible acid fruits, thin skin. Gelugur for large edible fluted fruits. Commercial gamboge is the resin of G. hanburyi and G. morella. Many other spp. have resin of this color, but they will not produce an emulsion in water. They may serve in varnishes as well as gamboge, but cannot be used for water colors. Sometimes applied on wounds. Tannin present in many spp. Acid fruits of several spp. used in external medicine. A decoction of one with salt, is swallowed for fever, it induces perspiration. Seeds contain edible oil (e). In Guttiferae (Burkill 1966:Vol. 1 page 1063) Several spp. yield gamboge, a resin-gum mixture. Formerly used as a cathartic. Now important as a water-paint pigment and in spirit varnishes for metal. In Guttiferae (Schery 1972:245) Gamboge is so called from Cambodia or Camboja, whence it was first brought (Brewer 1978) The genus Garcinia is named after Laurence Garcin who lived and collected and wrote in India in the eighteenth century (Sahni 1998:26) Linnaeus named the genus for Laurent Garcin, born at Grenoble, France in 1683. Settled in Switzerland at the time of the Edict of Nantes. His father considered him stupid, but he became a distinguished poet & preacher. As a physician in the Dutch army, he travelled extensively in the E Indies, collecting plants as a hobby. Fairchild was seeking all the Garcinias he could find, in Peradiniya, Ceylon; Botanic Gardens, Singapore; Buitenzorg, Java. Unfortunately all were large & slow-growing, not promising for stocks for mangosteen. Perhaps they will be useful for any future breeding of the genus. All spp. found at Buitenzorg were extremely sour (Fairchild 1943) Rheedia: Probably all spp. have edible fruit. Heartwood dull grayish to pinkish brown, hard, mod. heavy, tough, strong; coarse texture with irreg. grain. Not difficult to work, but does not finish smoothly, durability fair. Bark said to be rich in tannin. Timber used locally for tool handles, general construction & carpentry, fence posts, RR ties. In Guttiferae (Flora of Guatemala 1961:57) Rheedia: In Clusiaceae (Standley 1923:827) In Clusiaceae (Parham 1972) In Clusiaceae (Jain and Dam 1979) In Clusiaceae (Bodner and Gereau 1988) In Clusiaceae (Blicher-Mathiesen 1994)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia atroviridis
Garcinia atroviridis Griff. ex T. Anderson CLUSIACEAE
Common names: Kayu gelugur (Burkill) Assam geloegoer (Fairchild)
S Malaya, Assam; forests. Tree of fair size, sometimes semi-cult. in villages. Fruits brilliant yellow-orange, depressed-globose, fluted. Acid juicy fruit-wall, much used as a seasoning or sour relish called asam, both fresh and sun-dried. If stewed with plenty of sugar it is quite pleasant to eat; more usually in curries. Fruit in a lotion rubbed on the abdomen of a woman after confinement; purpose not clear. Leaf juice is given as a protective medicine at the same time. Leaf & root decoction dropped in the ear for earache. Dyers of Pattani, Kelantan & Pekan use the dried fruit as a fixative (e) with alum for a number of dyes (Burkill 1966:Vol. 1 page 1064) In Sumatra used like the Goraka of Ceylon in curries. Its rind splits naturally into segms. on ripening, and these when dried in the sun turn black. Keep for weeks, retaining their incredible sourness to the end (Fairchild 1943) Valid species (GRIN 2006)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia bancana
Garcinia bancana Miq. CLUSIACEAE
Sumatra, S Malaya, Banca. Tree of considerable size. Prefers tidal mud. Timber valuable, much sought in Sumatra. Cantley 1883 said supplies in Singapore were nearly gone. Fruit eaten in S Sumatra (Burkill 1966:Vol. 1 page 1065) V. handsome ornamental tree. Edible fruits are golden yellow like those of G. xanthochymus, and like it extremely sour; as sour, let us say, as those Japanese plums [Prunus, Rosaceae] which people grow in their gardens in New England and are so enthusiastic about (Fairchild 1943) Valid species (GRIN 2006)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia brasiliensis
Garcinia brasiliensis Mart. CLUSIACEAE
Synonyms: Rheedia brasiliensis (Mart.) Planch. & Triana
Common names: Bacupari (Schery)
Rheedia b.: S Brazil. Wild trees yield a yellowish subacid fruit with a leathery rind. Used chiefly to make doce, a dessert jam (Schery 1972:564) Fruit sold in the markets (Mabberley 1998:293) Valid species & synonym (GRIN 2006)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia cowa
Garcinia cowa Roxb. ex DC CLUSIACEAE
Common names: Cowa, Cowa-Mangosteen (Sturtevant)
Bengal, Assam, Siam, perhaps as far as Malaya. Tree. Burmese eat lvs. as a vegetable; this & G. microstigma are the only ones with edible lvs. Andaman Is., eat only v. young lvs. Fruit can be eaten, but is unpleasantly sticky. Timber hard but not first class. Bark contains a yellow resin, insol. in water, used for varnishes but not water-paints (Burkill 1966:Vol. 1 page 1066) Endocarp & pericarp good flavor (Mabberley 1998:293) E Indies. Fruit edible but not palatable. Fruit ribbed, russet-apricot-colored, the size of an orange, a little too acid to be delicious. Makes a remarkably fine preserve. Fruit is eaten in Burma (Sturtevant 1972 [1919]:285) Frequent in evergreen forests of NE India at lower elevations. Khasi and Garo sun-dry the fruit, powder it, use it for dysentery (Rao 1981:7) Fruit eaten. In the hills of NE India, the acid fruit is applied as a poultice for obstinate headaches (Jain and Dam 1979:54) Valid species (GRIN 2006)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia dulcis
Garcinia dulcis (Roxb.) Kurz CLUSIACEAE
Common names: Mundu (Burkill)
Molucca Is. Tree to 20 ft. Lvs. oblong, 6″ long, tapering apically to a slender point, entire, pale beneath. Fls. cream-colored, globular. Fruit yellow, smooth, about the size of an apple, seeds surrounded by yellow palatable aril. The fruit is edible raw or cooked; it makes an excellent jam (Hortus Third 1976:494) Java to Philippines; cult. throughout Malaysia. Tree of med. size. Fruits 2.5″ diam., yellow, rather sour, contain citric acid. Eaten to some extent raw & cooked, make excellent jam. Seed used in external medicine. In Java pounded with vinegar or salt, applied to swellings. Bark used as a dye, with indigo gives a brown color. In Java to dye mats: green color with Curcuma [Zingiberaceae] & Pandanus [Pandanaceae]. Timber yellow, not durable (Burkill 1966:Vol. 1 page 1066) Med. sized tree with prolific crops of pale orange plum-like fruits, 1″ diam. Eaten fresh or made into jam. Not a top-quality fruit (Kennard and Winters 1960) Moluccas. Berry the size of an apple, roundish oval, bright yellow when ripe. Seeds are enveloped in an edible pulp, darker color than the skin, pleasant taste (Sturtevant 1972 [1919]:285) Valid species (GRIN 2006)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia gummi-gutta
Garcinia gummi-gutta (L.) N Robson CLUSIACEAE
Synonyms: Garcinia cambogia Desr.
Common names: Gamboge (Burkill) Goraka (Fairchild)
Indonesia. Tree to 14 m. Lvs. elliptic to lanceolate, to 13 cm. Male fls. 3-4, axillary, yellow, female fls. larger, in axils of terminal leaf pair. Fruit globose, grooved, on stalks 2.5 cm long, orange or yellow, to 8 cm diam., aril red or white (Griffiths 1994:492) G. cambogia: Siam, Indochina, Ceylon. When the trunk is cut a bright yellow juice flows, collected and dried to a solid mass. In commerce the finest quality is called pipe gamboge. A gum resin, known as a pigment in painting for centuries. Used as a purgative (e) in China as far back as records go. Contains 15-20% gum, 70-80% of a yellow resin, gambogic acid. Purgative in doses of 2-5 grains, v. active hydragogue cathartic, many watery stools with much griping. The compound cathartic pill of the US Pharmacopoeia has 1/4 grain, plus other drugs to diminish the pain. Overdoses cause violent poisoning, with intense prostration (Encyclopedia Americana. 1954:Gamboge) G. cambogia: India. Endocarp is pink, deeply lobed. Pericarp dried for fish curry (Mabberley 1998:293) G. cambogia: In India used as a subst. for tamarind [Tamarindus, Leguminosae] in curries (Burkill 1966:Vol. 1 page 1063) G. cambogia: E Indies. Fruit 2″ diam., thin smooth yellowish rind, yellow succulent sweet pulp. The fruit is exceedingly sharp but pleasantly acid, and the aril or pulp is by far the most palatable part. Eaten as an appetizer at meals (Sturtevant 1972 [1919]:285) G. cambogia: Dull black dried segms. in markets everywhere in Ceylon, sour as hydrochloric acid. Used one piece at a time to give a curry a pleasant acid taste. One of the flavors that give Sinhalese curry its character (Fairchild 1943) Valid species & synonym (GRIN 2006)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia hanburyi
Garcinia hanburyi Hook.f. CLUSIACEAE
Synonyms: Garcinia morella (Gaetn.) Desr.
Common names: Gamboge, Rong (Burkill) Cambogia, Guttagemou, Tang-hwang, Shié-hwang (Britannica) Cochin goraka (Sturtevant) Kana-goraka (Fairchild)
Siam. Formerly incl. in G. morella, which is now restricted to India W Coast. Wild in the Siamese Circle of Chantaburi, not known wild elsewhere, but the hinterland is botanically unexplored. This sp. is the source of Siamese and Cambodian gamboge; gamboge also exported from Cambodia and lower Cochin-China. A Chinese traveler 1295-97 classified gamboge as a yellow subst. used medicinally. Today the Chinese use it only as coloring matter. 1864, d’Almeida had 28 trees 35-50 ft. high, which were tapped for gamboge from time to time; Hanbury described the sp. from these trees. Resin called rong in Siam, marketed chiefly to Singapore. A Eu. physician 1614 recommended the resin as a gentle purge. It certainly purges; a larger dose causes vomiting, and 4 grams causes fatal gastroenteritis. Parkinson 1640 called it catharticum. Now no longer used. Active resin called gambogic acid; rel. to mangostin in mangosteen rinds [G. mangostana], and to a subst. found in Mesua ferrea [Clusiaceae]. With the resin is 15-25% gum, analogous to that of the Acacias [Leguminosae]. In the East used only as a pigment. Comes to market in various shapes. Spiral tapping incisions, run into molds and allowed to set, or when half set pressed into cakes. Makes the golden yellow ink of Siam, used for writing on locally made books of black paper. A little used in Eu. in water-color painting. More used for a golden spirit-varnish. Also for gold-lacquer for coating metals, known as pear-ground lacquer, used with gold-dust. Gamboge paint is an emulsion in water (Burkill 1966:Vol. 1 page 1067) G. morella: This & other spp. yield gamboge, a resin obtained by cutting into the stem (Willis 1973:477) G. morella: Tree to 15 m. Lvs. oblong to lanceolate, to 10 cm. Fls. axillary, yellow, female clustered or sol. Fruit cherry-shaped, 2 cm diam., sepals persistent (Griffiths 1994:492) Zhou Daguan, Chinese Commercial Attaché late 13th cent., lists the exports from Angkor [Cambodia] to China. One was gamboge (Coe 2003:149) G. morella: Name is Sinhalese. Fruit the size of a morello cherry [Prunus, Rosaceae], scarcely edible. The sticky gamboge-like sap of the tree is a favorite medicine for wounds in Ceylon (Fairchild 1943) G. morella var.: Camboja, parts of Siam, S Cochin-China. Dioecious tree with leathery laurel-like lvs., small yellow fls. Fruit usually square shape, 4 seeds. The drug cambogia is a gum-resin from this tree. Gamboge in India also from G. morella, G. pictoria [now G. xanthochymus] and G. travancorica. Juice is contained chiefly in numerous ducts in the middle layer of the bark. Obtained by tapping, with bamboo joints to receive it as it exudes. When hardened it constitutes gamboge. In comm. found in cylindrical pieces known as pipe or roll gamboge. Also in cakes or amorphous masses, usually inferior quality. Dirty orange externally, hard, brittle. Breaks with a conchoidal fracture, reddish-yellow and glistening. Affords a brilliant yellow powder. No odor; taste at first slight, later acrid. Forms an emulsion in water. 20-25% of a gum sol. in water, 70-75% of a resin, gambogic acid, sol. in alcohol or ether. Johnston reports the formula C20 H23 O4. Contains 5% moisture. Commonest adulterants are rice-flour and pulverized bark. Exported chiefly from Bangkok in Siam and Saigon in Cochin China; some also from Kâmpot in Camboja. Used as a pigment and as a coloring matter for varnishes. Apparently first brought into Eu. by merchants from the East, late 16th cent. Bontius writing in 1658 mentions it as guttagemou, a word derived by Rost from the Malay gutâh, gum and the Javanese jamu, medicinal. The Chinese say gamboge is vomited up by serpents, or the product of a sp. of rattan analogous to the tabasheer of bamboo; names incl. tang-nwang, or shié-hwang, ‘serpent bezoar’. Pharmacologically a powerful hydragogue purgative, less drastic only than elaterium [Ecballium, Cucurbitaceae] and croton oil [Croton, Euphorbiaceae]. Like aloes [Aloe, Liliaceae] it appears to exert its chief influence on the lower bowel. In combination with compound colocynth [Citrullus, Cucurbitaceae] pill it has been recommended by Dr. Symonds as one of the most efficient purgatives in torpor of the colon. Gambogic acid is less cathartic than the same weight of gamboge. Its action depends on the presence of bile in the intestine. In cerebral affections, as apoplexy, when great debility is not present, gamboge is a valuable counter-irritant purgative. Sometimes used as an anthelmintic, but lacks any specific influences on enterozoa. Has been found highly serviceable in dropsy. Abeille 1883 administered it in divided doses of 6 grains per day, incr. by 2 grains daily; with the relief of the dropsy the patient’s tolerance of such large doses ceased. Apt to cause vomiting & griping, so usually administered with milder remedies. An ingredient of the pitula cambogiae compositae of pharmacy. In overdoses an acrid poison, causing violent emesis and catharsis. Also abdominal pain, coldness in the extremities and ulceration of the intestines, resulting in death (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1893:Gamboge) G. morella: Gamboge was exported from Cambodia acc. to Chinese records of 1295-97, still an imp. export today. Name from the country Camboja, and exported chiefly from that country, but the tree does not seem to have been seen there by any botanist. Habitat in the NW of the old Cambojan territory about Korat, now subject to Siam (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1893:Cambodia) Most important pigments are of mineral origin. One from plants is gamboge, used principally as a water-color (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1893:Pigments) G. morella: Siam, Cambodia, common small tree. Fruit a pulpy drupe 2″ diam., yellow color, esteemed as a dessert fruit. Cult. in Public Gardens of Jamaica, called cochin goraka [may ref. to a different sp.; no mention of fruit of this sp. in Burkill, etc.] (Sturtevant 1972 [1919]:286) Valid species; synonym listed as another species [but see Burkill, above] (GRIN 2006)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia mangostana
Garcinia mangostana L. CLUSIACEAE
Common names: Mangosteen (Hortus) Manggis, Manggusta, Manggistan (Burkill) Men-gu (Sturtevant)
Malay region. Handsome evergreen tree to 30 ft. Lvs. thick, leathery, oblong to 10″ long, many parallel lateral veins, dark green. Fls. sol., 2″ across, rose-pink. Fruit 2-3″ diam., rind smooth, thick, reddish-purple, enclosing 5-7 seeds, each in snow-white edible aril. Require moist lowland trop. climate, rich soil. Seeds have nucellar embryos, so plants come true from seed. Seeds v. short-lived after removal from the fruits; seedlings must be shaded until 2 ft. high. Difficult to transplant, hard to rear, slow-growing, seldom bear before 8 years. Not hardy, not productive outside the tropics. Cult. commonly as a door-yard tree in Indonesia, but rarely cult. elsewhere. One of the best trop. fruits (Hortus Third 1976:494) Malesia. Fls. rose-pink to yellow, sol. or paired. Fruit large, deep purple-black, 7.5 cm diam., aril white (Griffiths 1994:492) Allopolyploid female, 2n 88-90. Hybrid of G. hombroniana, 2n 48, x G. malaccensis, 2n ?42. One of the best trop. fruits, delicious endocarp, but fruits only productive in Malaysia (Mabberley 1998:293) Evergreen tree, to 18 m. Lvs. thick, leathery, oblong, to 25 cm long. Fls. mostly bisexual to 5 cm across, purple or yellow-red in few-fld. terminal bunches, sepals circular, petals broad-ovate, fleshy. Stamens many, filaments sometimes fused, ovary 5-8 celled, stigma thick, 5-8 lobes. Fruits globose to 6 cm across, dark purple with snow-white delicious pulp; rind thick full of yellow resinous juice, seeds 5-8, flat, large, embedded in the pulp. Origin unknown, prob. from Malaya, much cult. Hindi name mangustan, Burmese mangut. Flowers Nov.-Feb., fruits May-June. It is one of the most highly prized fruits of the tropics. The pulp melts in the mouth like ice cream, in flavor something between grape and peach. Seeds from ripe fruits must be sown within 5 days of collection (Sahni 1998:26) Manggis is a Malay term; names manggusta, manggistan still used in Sumatra, Bali & E of Bali; the Portuguese & Dutch adopted it. Cult. throughout W Malaysia, into Lower Burma, Lower Cochin China, and in the Philippines. Will not grow in the Spice Is., hard to grow in trop. Australia. Has been taken to the W Indies & elsewhere in the tropics. Not wild in Malaya, first trees in Penang Is. after its colonization, fruited ca. 1802. Tree takes 15 years to fruit. In Lower Cochin-China natives cut down the trees which do not fruit at the first flowering; this selects for good-producing hermaphrodite trees. Ridley said he never saw a male tree or a fertile stamen, though the seeds were almost always fertile. Only one race through Malaya. In the Sulu Is. a second one with thicker rind, more acid flesh, used for preserves. Little success in grafting on stocks of vigorous growth; most successful were G. xanthochymus, G. morella, G. livingstonei. Seeds soon lose their viability, v. hard to ship them any distance. Fruit can be transported fresh over a ten days’ voyage, but not to more distant markets. Snow-white pulp on the seeds is delicious, many attempts to ship them. Flavor too delicate to preserve, sugar masks it completely. In Sulu Is. boil the pulp & seeds in brown sugar; Malays peel young fruits, boil with sugar or ‘halwa manggis’. Malays won’t eat ripe fruit with sugar; some unexplained result if sugar mixes with rind sap. The firm fruit-rind contains 7-13% tannin. Only worth using as a tan if abundant immediately about the tannery. The Chinese use it; Malay dyers use it in Pekan for dyeing black; used alone it dyes brown not black. Yellow coloring material in the rind, mangostin. Rind sliced, dried, used medicinally as an astringent. Exported from Singapore to China. Malays give a decoction for dysentery; found good by Eu. physicians in India. Used as a lotion in Dutch Indies. Leaf infusion with unripe bananas [Musa, Musaceae] & a little benzoin [Styrax, Styracaceae] applied to circumcision wounds. Root decoction for irrreg. menstruation. Ripe fruits said to purge. Fruit used in Johore to allay thirst for fever. Seeds have 3% oil. Timber dark brown, rather hard, heavy, fairly good. Cabinet work in Indochina. In Malaya for building, rice pounders, spear handles, etc. Rind of ripe fruits have drops of yellow resin; like gamboge but does not form an emulsion in water; also v. low yield (Burkill 1966:Vol. 1 page 1069) Tree is native in the Molucca Is., intro. elsewhere, though not without difficulty. Grows about 20 ft. tall, somewhat fir-like [Abies, Pinaceae] in general form, but the lvs. are large, oval, entire, coriaceous, glistening. The fruit is about the size & shape of an orange, partitioned in much the same way, but of a reddish-brown chestnut color. Thick rind yields a v. astringent juice, rich in tannin, and containing a gamboge-like resin. Pulp soft, juicy, snow-white or rose-colored, exceedingly delicious and subtle flavor & perfume. Being perfectly wholesome, it may be eaten freely, and administered in fevers. G. purpurea [name not confirmed] is male mangosteen, and Embryopsis glutinifera [now Diospyros, Ebenaceae] is wild mangosteen (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1893:Mangosteen) No other trop. fruit has been so highly praised. Beautiful coloring, interesting shape, delicate enticing flavor rank it above all fruits of the Asiatic tropics. Not insipid like many trop. fruits. Thought to be native to the Malay Peninsula, to the Molucca & Sunda Is., cult. in humid tropics of Asia. Attractive columnar or pyramidal slow-growing evergreen to 40 ft. Strong central trunk with evenly spaced side branches, which become pendant at the tip when old. Lvs. opp., upper surface bright shining green, lower surface dull green. Fls. 2″ diam., fleshy, terminally on the branchlets. Subglobose fruit to 3″ diam., dark reddish-violet to purple, smooth or marked with brownish scars. Thick tough pericarp or rind exudes a bitter yellowish resin esp. when unripe. Calyx & stigmatic lobes persist till the fruit is ripe. Fruit is opened by an equatorial cut through the rind, exposes 5-8 translucent white segms. which are easily separated from the rind. The juicy pulp has a delicious sweet-tart flavor. Usually only 1-3 of the segms. contain seeds, 1″ x 0.3″. Plant seeds within days after removing from the fruit. Require shade for the first 4-5 years. Seedlings bear in 8 to 15 years, depending on location & care. Benefit by high humidity & rainfall, but will produce in areas with several months’ dry season (Kennard and Winters 1960) Described by Martin 1604 and Orta 1563, but Linschoten 1595 dismissed the fruit as ‘of small account’ (Flaumenhaft and Flaumenhaft 1982:155) Capt. Cook found it in Batavia: about the size of a crab apple, deep wine-red, with 5-6 small triangles in a circle at the top and the remains of the fl. at the bottom. When skin is removed, 6-7 white kernels in a circle embedded in pulp which is no less wholesome than pleasant. Pulp in segms. like an orange, half-transparent creamy white. Cult. in S & E India, but not as perfect as in Malaysia. Morris 1880: cult. in Public Gardens in Jamaica. Name in Burma is men-gu (Sturtevant 1972 [1919]:286) Fairchild tried repeatedly & unsuccessfully to intro. it in S FL, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Honduras, Panama. Finally Wilson Popenoe grew 500 young trees in the United Fruit Co. garden at Tela, Honduras. Also a small orchard in Summit, Panama, after many attempts. The queen of trop. fruit. No work has been done on breeding or sel. of this or any other in the genus. It is not grown anywhere in Java as an orchard crop; sometimes a few trees planted together in the kampongs or native villages. I could hear of no such thing as canned mangosteens, though Harry Boyle once sent me a case of canned mangosteens from the Philippines: delicious. No vars.; seedling trees everywhere bear curiously uniform fruits. No such thing as a grafted specimen anywhere, and why should there be if the fruit comes true to seed? (Fairchild 1943) Not common in Cent. Am., difficult to prop. However trees have fruited abundantly at some places along the Atlantic coast. One famous tree on Lake Izabal was leased for a time by the United Fruit Co., to obtain seeds for planting. Fruits small, depressed, dark purple, to 8 cm diam., contain several large seeds (Flora of Guatemala 1961:46) H.F.Winters in Puerto Rico: The seeds are parthenocarpic, that is, they are prod. without pollination of the flower. Genetically the seedlings are exactly like the parent. In fact, only one var. of mangosteen is known. Male fls. are present. Look alive men, you aren’t necessary! (Menninger 1967) In the Near East & Malaya, most commercial fruit is from scattered dooryard trees. Under ideal conditions 2,000 fruits per tree per year. Extremely susceptible to cold; cannot be grown in the US (Schery 1972:576) 1699, Dampier, Voy.: Within this shell, the Fruit appears in 3 or 4 cloves, about the bigness of the top of a man’s thumb. These will easily separate each from the other (Oxford English Dictionary. 1971:Clove) An extract of the tree bark has furnished a modern prep. called amibiasine, used as a remedy for amoebic dysentery, enteritis, etc. (Dalziel 1948:92) Valid species (GRIN 2006)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia xanthochymus
Garcinia xanthochymus Hook.f. ex T. Anderson CLUSIACEAE
Synonyms: Garcinia pictoria Roxb.
Common names: Gamboge (Griffiths)
W Himalayas, N India. To 40 ft. Lvs. oblong, acute, to 18″ long, thick, leathery, many parallel lateral veins. Fls. white to 0.8″ across. Fruit dark yellow, globose, to 3″ diam. (Hortus Third 1976:494) India & through Burma into Siam. Cult. in Malaya for its pleasant acid fruits which may be eaten. In India for sherbets, medicine. From the immature fruit an inferior gamboge paint may be made. Bark dyes cotton black. Timber yellowish white, rather heavy, fairly hard (Burkill 1966:Vol. 1 page 1074) N India. This & other spp. when tapped yield gamboge. Used in water colors & dyeing, e.g. for Buddhist priests’ robes (Mabberley 1998:293) S India, Malaya. Small to med. sized tree. Smooth yellow fruit the size of a small orange, pointed stigmatic end. Edible yellow pulp is juicy, has an acid flavor. Not a top quality fruit (Kennard and Winters 1960) E Indies, Malaya. Round smooth yellow fruit, taste little inferior to many of our apples. Firminger 1874 says it is intolerably acid, Unger 1859 that it tastes pleasant (Sturtevant 1972 [1919]:287) Not as good as the mangosteen (Schery 1972:576) G. pictoria: This & others have seeds that yield a fat (e) similar to that of G. indica (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1893:Oil) G. pictoria: This & others in India yield gamboge like G. hanburyi (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1893:Gamboge) Valid species & synonym (GRIN 2006)
CLUSIACEAE Garcinia [balsamifera]
Garcinia [balsamifera] . CLUSIACEAE
Synonyms: Verticillaria balsamifera .
Common names: Aceyte de María, Balsamo de Maria (Ruiz)
Range not given. Lima, Peru, imports aceyte de María from Guayaquil, Ecuador (Ruiz 1998 (1777–1788):64). Other plants of medicinal value and balsams, gums, and resins of many kinds could be procured from Peruvian provinces along the Andes, including aceyte de María (Ruiz 1998 (1777–1788):152). Verticillaria b.: In the luxuriant fertile jungles of Pozuzo on the upper Amazon were many plants. One is Verticillaria balsamifera [now Garcinia sp.] which is a very attractive tree, with its leaves in whorls, and the leaves and branches a brilliant green. It exudes a greenish resin that the local Indians call balsamo or aceyte de María. They gather it in abundance during the rainy season, and keep it in pieces of bamboo stem for sale to travelling merchants (Ruiz 1998 (1777–1788):264). Name not in GRIN (GRIN 2006)
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