Characteristics of Garcinia seed fats and their potential usages as functional ingredients: A review

Fruits of commercial Garcinia genus have been used for centuries in subtropic and tropic areas. However, large amounts of their seeds and included kernels are generally discarded as wastes or treated as low-value agricultural products due to lack of appropriate processing technologies. The kernels have considerable values as sources of specialty fats and liposoluble bioactive compounds. Typical Garcinia seed fats for commercial purposes are mainly kokum (Garcinia indica) butter, mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) seed fat and yellow mangosteen (Garcinia xanthochymus). These fats contained special sn-1,3-disaturated-2-unsaturated triacylglycerols, especially StOSt, POSt, StLSt and PLSt (P, palmitic acid; St, stearic acid; O, oleic acid and L, linolic acid), which are quite different from the triacylglycerol structure in common vegetable oils. Their improved usages in chocolate fats, trans-free shortenings, dressings, salad and cooking oils, oleogels and antioxidants were concluded in this review. The health benefits contributed by their functional micronutrients (e.g. tocopherols, phytosterols, polyphenols and flavonoids) were further discussed to expand their application in functional foods, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.