ABSTRACT
Tropical fruits, such as açai, acerola, camu camu, dragon fruit, goji, lychee, mangosteen, passion fruit, and pomegranate, as well as products containing these fruits, are currently marketed as “exotic” or “super” fruits because of their relatively high antioxidant capacity and proposed health-promoting activities. Mangosteen juice and related products are primarily sold in North America and Europe using direct sales and a multilevel marketing approach rather than a standard retail model. Sales of mangosteen beverages in 2007 were estimated at $147 million and increased to $210 million in 2010 in the United States alone [1,2]. The juice generally is prepared from ripened fruit that weighs 75-125 g and is composed of the edible aril or pulp that accounts for approximately one-third of the total weight, a thick pericarp or rind, and the skin (Figure 31.1). Standard processing of mangosteen fruit into juice is outlined in Figure 31.2 [3,4] Generally, a puree is prepared from the aril and mixed with an extract of the pericarp to produce the “juice.”
