August is a merry month for picking lanzones, rambutan and mangosteen. Today I went to our fruit farm in Ormoc City to pick whatever has been left by the fruit bats. Since June, we've been harvesting sweet Bangkok santol and in late July our juicy rambutans have been bearing fruit to the delight of our friends and neighbors. Twelve years ago, my husband has developed this 2-hectare former sugarcane land into a tropical fruit farm for a future retirement hobby. Serendipitously, his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture came in rather handy. To secure the area, he constructed a living fence of barbed wire on gmelina arborea and eucalyptus camdulensis around the property and planted it with lanzones, rambutan, durian, mangosteen, mangoes, jackgruit, longgan, and dragon fruit, a veritable fruit salad bowl. Among our most awaited fruits are lanzones and mangosteen, the queen of fruits.
Lanzones (Lansium domesticum Corr.), according to the Philippine Department of Agriculture, contains 68% edible portion. Every 100 g. of the edible portion contains water, 84 g.; carbohydrates with some protein and fat, 14.2 g.; fiber, 0.8 g.; ash, 0.6 g.; Ca, 19 mg; K, 275 mg. It contains vitamin B1, B2 and a trace of vitamin C. Rich in tannin, the lanzones seed and rind have chemical substances that are medicinally and industrially useful. Lanzones flesh and juice are used by rural folk to treat sore eyes. The fruit peel serves as a mosquito repellant while the bark is also used for malaria and dysentery patients.
Of late, mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) has acquired some fame because of its healing properties. Mangosteen fruit has been reported to contain xanthones, a group of compounds that have powerful antioxidant and other potent physiological properties. The use of mangosteen rind to treat infections and fever dates back to hundreds of years ago. Since 2004, mangosteen juice has been marketed as a healthy option in the U.S. because of its multiple health benefits.
When buying ripe mangosteen in the market, choose small to medium-sized ones that can be pressed gently with one's fingers and look at the bottom of the fruit for the number of brown petals. Although on average a mangosteen fruit has five fruit pods or seeds, the number of petals at the bottom will tell you how many fruit pods there are inside.
