Natural Home Cures Freeze Dried Rich Pericarp Mangosteen Contains Cartenoids
(*) See References and Disclaimer at the bottom of the page.
Carotenoids are a subclass of Terpenes and can be recognized by their red, orange and bright yellow pigmentation. If you'd like to see an example of Carotenoids for yourself, look no further than vegetables like red palm oil, tomatoes, pink grapefruit, and oranges. Carotenoids aren't limited to plants either, some animals have adapted this compound to make themselves more colorful: the flamingo owes its bright pink feathers to the Carotenoids in the crustaceans that it eats. There are more than 600 natural occurring Carotenoids.(1*)
Carotenoids are often touted as amazing health foods because of their ability to be turned into Vitamin A (in the form of retinol) once ingested.(2*)
A quick breakdown of the compounds that form the bulk of our Vitamin A: Beta Carotene accounts for about 50%-54% of the activity while Alpha Carotene and Epsilon Carotene share around 42%-50% of the activity. The reason Beta Carotene is responsible for more Vitamin A production is that it has two retinyl groups which can be turned into retinol whereas the Alpha and Epsilon compounds only have one retinyl group each and thus less raw material to convert into Vitamin A.(3*)
The Carotenes mentioned above as well as Gamma Carotene, Lutein, and Lycopene—of which none will convert to Vitamin A — show evidence of guarding against prostate, uterine, breast, colorectal and lung cancers.(4*)
Source References
(1) Wikipedia: Carotenoid
(2) International Carotenoid Society: International Carotenoid Society
(3) US National Library of Medicine: Carotenoids
(4) University of California: Biosynthesis of carotenoids