Nutrition and Food Toxicology Review Article Rahul C Ranveer 1 * and Akshya K Sahoo 2 1 PG Institute of Post-Harvest Management, Killa – Roha, Dist. Raigad, Maharashtra, India 2 Department of Technology (Food Technology), Shivaji University, Kolhapur - 416 004, Maharashtra, India Received: August 27, 2017; Published: October 12, 2017 *Corresponding Author: PG Institute of Post-Harvest Management, Killa – Roha, Dist. Raigad, Maharashtra, India. Bioactive Constituents of Kokum and its Potential Health Benefits Abstract The main focus of the review is to explore bioactive constituents of Kokum (Garcinia indica Choisy) and their health benefits. Kokum generally grown in tropical region and kokum has many bioactive compounds such as anthocyanin, Hydroxyl citric acid and Garcinol, those possesses several nutraceutical activities. Among the bioactive compound anthocyanin, this has a great potential as a natural colorant and having free radical scavenging activity. The hydroxyl citric acid (HCA) is major acid present in kokum, which is used as an anti-obesity ingredient in pharmaceutical preparations. Another bioactive compound garcinol which is a polyisoprenylated benzophenone derivative has antioxidant and chelating activity. This paper reviewed potential health benefits bioactive components present in kokum. Citation: Rahul C Ranveer and Akshya K Sahoo. “Bioactive Constituents of Kokum and its Potential Health Benefits”. Nutrition and Food Toxicology 1.6 (2017): 236-244. Volume 1 • Issue 6 • 2017 Page 236 to 244 Volume 1 Issue 6 October 2017 © All Copy Rights are Reserved by Rahul C Ranveer and Akshya K Sahoo. ISSN: 2573-4946 Introduction Kokum (Garcinia indica Choisy) is one of the underexploited tree spices. It is mostly found in Konkan region of Maharashtra, Goa, Kar- nataka, Kerala and Surat district of Gujarat on the West Coast of India, as well as it is found in some extent in the forests of Assam, Megha- laya and West Bengal. In spite of it’s incredible medicinal and nutritive properties, kokum is not cultivated systematically on orchard of other fruit such as mango, cashew nut etc. It is mostly found as a kitchen garden plant or mixed crop in plantations of coconut, areca nut, as roadside plants or in forest [1-2]. The locally Kokum has different names such as, Kokum in Hindi, while bheranda, bhiranda, kokamba, kokambi, ratamba, ratambi, tambada amba in Marathi. In Tamil it is known as murgal, murgal-mara and in Malayalam it is known as kaattampi kokkam, in Kannada it is called murgina, punarpuli, devana huli. Tintali in Oriya and Kokum or bhirind in Gujarati and Konkani. In Sanskrit it is known with different names such as vrikshamia, amlabija, amlapura, amlashaka. In French, Italian and Spanish the name is spelt as cocum and in Por- tuguese it is known as brindao or brindonna [2-4]. Keywords: Kokum; Bioactive compounds; Anthocyanins; HCA; Garcinol