Mangosteen

The xanthones, alpha- and beta-mangostins, and garcinone B exhibit strong inhibitory effect against Mycobacterium tuberculosis ⁽³⁾, and aromatase inhibitory activity ⁽¹⁴⁾. Alpha- and gamma-mangostins also antagonize the activities of histamine and serotonin by acting as receptor blockers ⁽⁸⁾.

Alpha-mangostin was shown to inhibit fatty acid synthase (FAS) believed to be via stronger action on the ketoacyl synthase domain and weaker effects on the acetyl/malonyl transferase domain ⁽²²⁾. It also reduced the synthesis of prostaglandins by inhibiting the activities of COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes ⁽⁵⁾, and prevented oxidative damage of LDL by functioning as a free-radical scavenger ⁽⁷⁾.

In other studies, alpha-mangostin inhibited growth of leukemia HL60 cells by inducing caspase-3-dependent apoptosis ^{(1) (6)}. Its preventive effect on cisplatin-induced apoptotic death is associated with the inhibition of p53 expression and generation of reactive oxygen species ⁽²³⁾.  A recent study implicates the antitumor activity of alpha-mangostin to activation of autophagy and not ER stress induction ⁽²⁴⁾.
Garcinone E also has cytotoxic effects against hepatocellular carcinoma cells ⁽¹⁰⁾. In vitro studies have demonstrated that a crude methanolic extract from the pericarp of mangosteen has antiproliferative, antioxidative, and apoptotic effects against SKBR3 breast cancer cells ⁽¹¹⁾.