Garcinia: what kind of fruit is it and how is it healthy

Garcinia is a child of the tropics, so in Russia the plant can only be seen in greenhouses or in the homes of passionate gardeners.

What is this fruit

The fruits of garcinia are not only completely edible, they are tasty and are widely used in dishes that are prepared in the countries where this plant grows. The most famous representative of this fruit family is purple mangosteen, a little less popular are red-orange candys and golden tamarind.

What does it look like

Garcinia may be a shrub, but most often it is an evergreen tree of rather small growth, reaching 15–20 m — a 5–7-storey house has approximately the same height. Leaves have a dense structure. On the upper side they are juicy green, on the lower side they are pale, even dull. The length of the sheet is about 25 cm, the width is about 10 cm.

Garcinia blooms with fleshy creamy or pinkish-greenish fragrant flowers. After flowering, fruits that look like persimmons or a small pumpkin are formed on the tree - the same bright, shiny and slightly flattened on top and bottom. The size of each fruit is about 5 cm. The color of its peel may be different depending on the species, and there are at least 50: Cambodian - green or pale yellow, Livingston - bright orange, Indian - purple.

Under the skin lies a juicy tender flesh, which also happens in different colors - and orange, and golden, and white. The pulp is divided into four segments, each has small bones.

The fruit tastes juicy, refreshing, sour-sweet, the balance of acid and sweetness depends on the species.

Where grows

The evergreen Garcinia tree grows in places with a tropical climate - where it is warm and humid. It is found in Asian countries - Thailand, Malaysia, India, southern Africa, Australia and the Polynesian islands. In the 20th century, culture was introduced to southern Europe.

What is useful garcinia fruit

Both scientific medicine and traditional healers note that the fruits of the plant have a rich set of healing qualities. First of all, these are anti-inflammatory and antiviral effects. So, thanks to their use, immunity increases, the course of seasonal diseases is facilitated, the number of complications after them is reduced.

Garcinia has a noticeable effect on the functioning of the intestines, accelerating the assimilation of food, peristalsis, gently removes toxins and slag. Due to this, lipid metabolism is normalized, correct and fast breakdown of carbohydrates and fats, which helps those who want to lose weight, accelerate this process.

The ability of the plant fruits to neutralize free radicals was noted. It has been established that due to garcinia, hemoglobin levels of blood are improved. Doctors believe that these fruits inhibit the growth of tumors and the degeneration of benign to malignant.

Garcinia fruits are also useful for the heart, maintaining its normal rhythm and stabilizing blood pressure, preventing coronary artery disease. They help older people slow down visual impairment associated with age-related changes in the optic nerve, and also support twilight vision.

Fruits are useful to women not only as a treat, they can be used as a component of nutritious, anti-aging masks, and for teenagers as a remedy against age-related acne.

Which may be harmful

The main thing in eating the fruits of this tropical fruit is not to overdo it, since, like any unusual product, garcinia can cause a negative reaction from the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, it is quite possible allergies.For the same reason, it is not necessary to eat garcinia for children under 5 years old, pregnant women and women who are breast-feeding a child - there is a chance of allergens entering the baby's body.

Garcinia is contraindicated for those who suffer from diabetes mellitus, as well as kidney diseases and liver failure.

Due to the high content of ascorbic acid with fruit, one should be careful for people who are diagnosed with a stomach ulcer or duodenal ulcer, gastritis with increased secretory function, and colitis.

With depression and nervous diseases, a tropical fruit can worsen the condition of the patient, and the use of garcinia in parallel with antidepressants and sedatives is undesirable.

When overeating garcinia, nausea, pain in the stomach, and diarrhea are possible. If such signs appear, stop using it.

How to eat garcinia

The fresh young garcinia fruit has a soft peel. It is easy to cut with a sharp knife. The main thing is not to crush the juicy middle. Have to cut the fruit in half, and remove the pulp with a dessert or teaspoon.

You can eat just raw pulp or cut it into pieces and add ice cubes to them. This is how fruit is served in many restaurants and cafes in the homeland of Garcinia - in Asia.

Garcinia is perfectly “friendly” with the taste of watermelon, papaya, pineapple, grape, melon, making it a frequent ingredient in fruit salads or refreshing drinks.

What can be cooked from garcinia

Seasoning is made from the garcinia peel, for which it is dried either in air with intensive ventilation, or in an electric dryer, and then ground in a coffee grinder. This seasoning is well suited to fish dishes, meat, rice, salads, legumes, potatoes.

Garcinia pulp has a light sour-fresh taste. In Asian countries, it is often used in cooking.

Seafood salad

It is necessary to chop half the pods of chili pepper with thin rings (seeds must be removed). Also - with ringlets - chop half a shallot. Stir the onion and chili in one bowl.

Prepare the sauce, for which peel the middle garcinia, mash it with a blender, add 20-30 ml of white wine, salt and boil a little to thicken - you should get 50 g of sauce. You can replace it with a simpler sauce: add 2 tablespoons of lime juice to the juice of one garcinia. Pour the mixture of chilli and shallot into the sauce, set aside so that the mass is infused.

Further cooking:

1. Prepare 10 king prawns: thaw, boil for no more than two minutes, remove the shell and remove the esophagus.
2. Boil 100 g of chicken breast, cut into cubes.
3. Dice 100 g of fresh pineapple.
4. Halve 3-4 cherry tomatoes.
5. To pick leaves with three sprigs of mint.
6. In a salad bowl, mix shrimp with chopped chicken, pineapple, cherry tomatoes, mint leaves and season with sauce.

Fruit salad

For a tropical salad, take the garcinia fruit and any four more fruits, the main thing is that they have a different taste. You can choose from papaya, kiwi, pineapple, watermelon, any citrus, pitahaya, banana, pomegranate, apple.

Process:

1. Cut fruit into slices, season with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice in half with sugar syrup prepared in advance (boil 100 g of sugar with 100 ml of water until completely dissolved and strain).
2. Add 2-3 mint leaves for taste, aroma and beauty.

Garcinia jam

Cooking jam from this fruit is impossible, because its flesh is so tender that it loses shape when heated. And the jam is great!

Cooking process:

1. Peel the fruit, take out the seeds, chop the pulp, mix with sugar and set aside to make the juice stand out. For 1 kg of pulp, 0.5 kg of sugar (better than brown) is required.
2. Cook the jam over low heat with continuous stirring.Once it begins to thicken, add a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Jelly

Cooking process:

1. Dissolve gelatin (a tablespoon) in half a glass of freshly squeezed tangerine juice.
2. Peel six medium garcinia fruits and turn into mashed potatoes with a blender.
3. Mix the puree with the juice, in which the gelatin is swollen, and put on a quiet fire. When stirring, add honey, its quantity is determined by taste - as you like. Sour lovers can do without honey at all. Bring the jelly mass to a homogeneous appearance.
4. Remove from the stove, pour into silicone molds and put in the refrigerator. Before serving, jelly can be poured with chocolate dissolved in a water bath.

Cottage cheese dessert

Cooking process:

1. Dilute 30 g of gelatin in a small amount of water, leave to swell.
2. Mix 600 g of yogurt (milk, without fruit filler) with 200 g of cottage cheese, pour 0.5 teaspoon of vanillin, pour gelatin, beat the whole mass with a blender, pour it into molds (not to the top, but half the height) and put in the refrigerator .
3. While the mass is solidifying, peel the garcinia and rub it through a sieve or mash it with a blender. You can add honey for sweetness.
4. On the first layer of yogurt-curd mass, spread the garcinia puree with honey and another layer of yogurt - now to the top of the form. Sprinkle grated chocolate on top.

Garcinia Nectar

Option 1: mix garcinia juices, apple and watermelon equally.

Option 2: mix garcinia and pomegranate juices equally, add mashed potato made from banana to taste.

Option 2: mix the juices of kiwi, pitahaya, watermelon, garcinia in a ratio of 2: 2: 2: 1.

Application in traditional medicine

Garcinia has the ability to improve metabolic processes and digestion, stimulate the intestines, have a laxative effect, reduce appetite and burn body fat, due to which it is used as a means for losing weight. Moreover, due to the fact that the plant is a source of vitamins and natural mineral substances, in the process of losing weight, the human body is saturated with these beneficial substances.

Slimming Tea
Cut the dried garcinia fruit into small pieces, take a teaspoon of the pieces and pour them with a glass of boiling water. You can add dried leaves of the plant. Infuse tea for 10-15 minutes. Since the drink itself has an unsaturated taste, it is good to add spices (ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon, orange) or dried fruits to improve it.

Drink tea, both warm and cold, half an hour or an hour before meals. The main thing is not to forget that the best effect is achieved while observing the rules of balanced nutrition and sports loads.

How to grow

Since garcinia grows in the tropics, it is important at home to create a suitable temperature regime for it.

Hold the seeds before planting for about 30 minutes in a weak, pale pink solution of potassium permanganate. For the soil, it is necessary to mix garden soil in half with compost - such soil is the closest in composition to the rich crumbly soil of tropical forests. Cover the pot with planted seeds with plastic wrap, moisten the soil infrequently - as it dries.

Plants hatch for a long time, perhaps the first sprouts will appear no earlier than 4-6 months after planting. After that, remove the film, and spray small garcinia daily.

It is better to transplant into a large pot in a permanent place in spring, when it is warm and there is a lot of sun. The larger the plant, the more volumetric capacity required. For a tree of about 1.2–1.5 m, a pot with a volume of about 20 liters is needed, it is better if it is heavier - made of ceramic, rather than plastic. A drainage hole is required at the bottom.

At the bottom of the pot, put 2-3 cm of gravel or expanded clay, and then pour the soil mixture into which to plant a tree. Put it near the sunny window and water it weekly, using at least 3-4 liters of settled water. Between watering, spray foliage to maintain tropical moisture close to tropical.

In nature, garcinia grows to enormous size, in a house or apartment, you can form a tree no more than 2 m high, regularly pinching sharply growing young twigs.

Garcinia is extremely rarely affected by pests, but loves top dressing with organic fertilizers and nitrogen. Feeding is best in spring and summer, when there is a period of active growth. In autumn and winter, create a relative rest period for the plant.

In summer, the tree must be taken out to fresh air - a balcony or terrace, protected from sudden gusts of wind and drafts. At the first forecasts of a decrease in temperature, the plant must be entered into heat.

Fruit Facts

1. Under natural conditions, garcinia grows actively throughout the year and gives fruits twice a year.
2. The wood is very attractive, it is understated by beautiful brown veins, practically does not rot, heavy and dense. The trunks of old trees, no longer suitable for fruiting, are used for the manufacture of furniture, doors, hoops on barrels.
3. Garcinia contains resins containing a brownish-yellow component called xanton, which makes dyes made from it.

Garcinia Fruit Photo