Straining and decanting my mangosteen extract, I was working in silence and calmly breathing life and strength into my tincture (as I tend to do) and speaking (ok - muttering) - repeating as a mantra, if you will - her strengths and all that she was created to achieve.
And so I whispered to her about all the mitochondria she would protect, the cancer cells she would vanquish and the immune systems she would naturally strengthen and enable. The frogs sang along with me outside and there was a beautiful feeling of peace and purpose, until my brain kicked in.
The mangosteen extract I make uses the whole fruit - and is simply the skin, seeds and fruit chopped very small (maximum surface area) and burbled in high quality clear white spirit for a whole moon cycle, or 40 days (depending on which part of my spiritual-religious self has dominance that day. LOL).
Image by Fathima Shanas from Pixabay
This particular tincture needed to sit for the full 40 days temptation-in-the-wilderness. Missed the "How To" and why post? Here It Is Again.
My brain kicked in with a simple question as I watched the deep purple tincture drip through my extremely fine strainer: "I wonder if there are any NEW studies out there about mangosteen and uses we may not have considered before?"
Ad so, fortified with a shot of freshly decanted tincture and a pot of excellent organic coffee, I waded off into the bowels of the internet and published medical research - that part of the internet that they seem to make difficult to access and understand on purpose. I do so love it when the whisperings of intuition are on point, and they were.
I came across an Australian article published in the scientific journal, Frontiers in Psychiatry only 3 months ago which summarizes exciting new findings about simple mangosteen extract as a promising new therapeutic agent for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. You can read the full article Here.
In the course of the studies, the extract was also found to be efficacious in regulating the dopamine cycle (steadying depressive 'dips'), protecting neural cells against the cellular changes which are believed to cause Alzheimer's Disease and improving memory.
Before you get too excited and start eating mountains of the yummy mangosteen fruit, the exciting phytochemicals are found predominantly in the pericarp (thick bitter rind) and the seeds. Hence the tinctures. You CAN simply liquefy a whole mangosteen and try to drink it down and access the botanical goodness that way, but I'm here to report (personal experience!) that it is so astringent and bitter that afer the first thick mouthful, it is almost impossible not to gag. And so I brew my whole mangosteens in pure white spirit and simply take a dropper full, squeezed as far back down my throat and on the back of my tongue as possible, and have a strong black coffee at the ready. It is still tongue-curlingly bitter and astringent, but is passes in a moment.
I believe the best natural medicine is prevention. So whether you have an official diagnosis of one sort or another to treat, or simply want to live your allotted time to the full - with great memory and an alert, healthy brain! - it makes SENSE to add in a "mangosteen tincture week" here and there. If I'm working intensely hard (as I am at the moment) or feeling a bit 'under the weather', I take a dropper full, twice a day, till my little bottle is empty (about 6-7 days). And then wait a week. Repeat if still not bouncing off the walls.
BlissednBlessed in my natural Thai world. Enjoying the mangosteen season. Going to lay down a few more bottles of mangosteen tincture in the coming weeks.
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