African Mango Health Benefits

Despite the recent frenzy surrounding African Mango and its weight-loss benefits, the fruit has actually been used as a diet aid for centuries in Cameroon, Africa—the only place in the world where African Mango is grown. The brightly colored tropical fruit is found exclusively in Cameroon's west-coastal rainforests. African mango, or bush mango, differs from other mango fruits in that it produces a peculiar seed, which natives of Cameroon refer to as "Dikka nuts." For hundreds of years, an extract from the seeds called irvingia gabonensis have been used among Cameroon villagers for its wide-ranging medicinal benefits.

Published in the journal of “Lipids in Health and Disease.” The study was conducted on 102 people split between those taking the African Mango and those taking the placebo. According to the study taking African Mango resulted in “Significant improvements in body weight, body fat, and waist circumference. African Mango (Irvingia gabonensis) administered 150 mg twice daily before meals to overweight and/or obese human volunteers favorably impacts body weight and a variety of parameters characteristic of the metabolic syndrome.”

How Does African Mango Work?

African mango is a natural weight loss dietary supplement proven to burn fat and encourages the body to utilize the calories consumed most effectively. The Latin name for the commonly called African Mango Extract is Irvingia Gambonensis and it is derived from the seeds of the plant. Use of this extract as a weight loss aid is substantiated by a 2005 University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon study published by their Department of Biochemistry. In this double blind study the participants were divided into test subjects and a control group and given the supplement or a placebo along with regular meals of approximately 1800 calories for both groups for one month. At the end of the month there was a significant weight loss differential for the test group that showed an average decrease in weight of nearly five percent as well as reductions in LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and triglycerides.