The tree is also ornamental, with a dense canopy of green leaves and red-tinged, tender, emerging leaves.
It is indigenous to the Western Ghats region of India, along the western coast.
It is found in forest lands, riversides, and wasteland, and also gets cultivated on a small scale.
It does not require irrigation, spraying or fertilizers.
These plants prefer evergreen forests, but some also thrive in relatively low-rainfall areas.
Garcinia indica is known by various names across India, including amsol/aamsul, bindin, biran, bhirand, bhinda, bhrinda, brinda, kokum/kokam, katambi, panarpuli, kudam puli or ratamba.
Further, the extract/concentrate of this fruit is called aagal in Konkani and Marathi.
It is ready to use for preparation of sol kadhi when mixed with coconut milk.
The genus Garcinia, belonging to the family Clusiaceae, includes some 200 species found in the Old World tropics, especially Asia and Africa.
Of the 35 species found in India, 17 are endemic.
Of these, seven are endemic to the Western Ghats region, six in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and four in the northeastern region of India.
the Garcinia indica seed contains 23-26% oil, which remains solid at room temperature and is used in the preparations of confectionery, medicines and cosmetics.
The outer cover of fruit is dried in the sun to get aamsul or kokam.
It is used as a slightly sour spice in recipes from Maharashtra that yields peculiar taste and dark red colour.
It is a preferred substitute for tamarind in curries and other dishes from Konkan.
It is also used in Konkani cuisine, in Gujarat, and some cuisines of South India.
As kudam puli, it is an essential ingredient of traditional fish recipes of Kerala.
Recently, industries have started extracting hydroxycitric acid from the rind of the fruit.
Kokum juice is also thought to be effective against allergies due to bee stings and other insect bites, sun exposure symptoms and acidity.