ITS healing properties have always been acknowledged in parts of Asia, where it has been consumed for centuries. Yet, although labelled the 'Queen of Fruits' after getting endorsed by Queen Victoria more than 100 years ago, the mangosteen has been slow to catch on in the Western world ? until now.

Four years ago a new company, Xango, was set up in Utah in the US, manufacturing a dietary supplement using the juice of the mangosteen fruit. The company has since opened offices in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and is also looking to expand its operation in Japan and Mexico.

And, thanks to the efforts of one Bermudian couple, the fruit beverage is also now available on the island.

"My wife had an illness and a friend of ours suggested that she might like to try the mangosteen," Gerhard Lipp said.

"She had nothing to lose and within a matter of days she started getting better. She said to me, 'Look, this stuff is really good' but I was, 'Well, I don't know'.

"But I used to suffer from back pain so I started taking it and started feeling better. That's when we started recommending it to other people and people started buying it.

"We were buying it in from the States and gradually had to start buying in more and more because people were coming back to us and telling us that this stuff was really working. These were just friends and regular people coming in. One case led to ten cases which led to 20 cases."

But it's not just the health-giving qualities of Xango that are making it much in demand. A new method of buying the product ? through network marketing ? enables all purchasers to also be distributors, buying the juice at wholesale prices direct from the manufacturer rather than at retail prices.

And as a bonus, any distributor who signs up other distributors onto the network gets huge reductions in their next purchase, bringing the cost of the beverage down even further.

According to internet encyclopaedia web site wikipedia, in a typical network marketing or multi-level marketing arrangement, "individuals associate with a parent company as an independent contractor and are compensated based on their sales of products or service, as well as the sales achieved by those they bring into the business".

The web site continues: "In a legitimate MLM company, commissions are earned only on sales to the end-user, who is often also a distributor. No money may be earned from recruiting alone ('sign-up fees'.)

"Some companies produce revenues primarily by attracting new participants or selling them marketing services, as opposed to selling actual products. One must analyse the compensation plan to determine whether participants are paid from actual sales to customers and not from new-recruit bonuses or business support sales.

"Multi-level marketing has a recognised image problem due to the fact that it is often difficult to distinguish legitimate MLMs from such illegal scams as pyramid or Ponzi schemes. NM/MLM businesses do operate legitimately in all 50 US states and more than 100 other countries, and new businesses may use terms like 'affiliate marketing' or 'home-based business franchising'."

Mr. Lipp is confident that the Xango network marketing system is a win/win for anyone who gets on board.

"My wish is that everybody can consume the product and nobody pays for it and in a few years' time the health impact on this island will be tremendous.

"What do I mean when I say nobody pays for it? If I sign someone up who wants to get the product at the same wholesale price as me, the company will give me a cheque because I've promoted it to someone else.

"If you get five people signed up you get enough money that whatever you drink is free. You get all the money back on your consumption and so it's much better than going to a shop where you buy it for retail because you become your own supplier. That's why we need to work on the local community and say, 'Look, if you think it's expensive, there are possibilities to buy it a lot cheaper'. You get all the money back on your consumption you become your own supplier.

"There are consumers and then there are people who want to buy direct from the manufacturer, which is the future of business ? people going on the Internet.

"Of course, the cost of shipping something into Bermuda is tremendous," Mr. Lipp added.

"What I had to do is bring it in in my container and then everybody splits the cost to keep the cost to a minimum. After we had 100, 500, 600 cases I said that the manufacturer should help us with the distribution.

"They came down and looked at our set-up and said, 'Okay, if you can sell 800 cases a month on a regular basis, we're going to do it'."

Mr. Lipp's wife, Kathy, is also on a mission to get people to consume the beverage.

"My main aim is to get everybody healthy and feeling better," she said.

"It's helped about 12 people on the island who have had cancer ? it's been a lifesaver for some people," she said.

"My best friend had a cholesterol level of 500 and it went right down to 200 in a matter of months.

"My husband has worked so hard trying to get Bermuda open and he's running around the island delivering boxes. But we really believe in this product which is why we begged the manufacturer to open up Bermuda.

"The beauty of this system is that you can place an order in the United States and then, two hours later, you can go and pick it up. That's what we've achieved. They will send a container of Xango and, if you're signed up, you just dial an 0800 number, give them your ID number, order a couple of cases, and then in a matter of hours you can go and pick it up because the stuff is already here.

"For a lot of companies it's not worth their while to set up a system like that because they're unsure of the demand in any new market. We have shown them that there is a demand here and this is just the beginning ? the demand will grow.

"We went almost a whole year where people were having to wait three weeks to get their boxes because we didn't know how many people we had who wanted the product and so we can't really just order 1,000 cases.

"Bermuda wasn't officially open. You had to buy personally, individually, and ship it in but now we have a centre which we have provided for them ? otherwise it would have phased out."

Her husband concluded: "We have workshops every Monday from 5.30 to 6.30 to explain about the benefits of Xango because that's the most important thing. We have to let people know how they can get it for the wholesale price because, the bottom line is, this is not a product that you want to buy in a store.

"Everybody should be using it and everybody should be buying it themselves because it's cheaper for them ? that's the whole idea, to get everyone using it and for them to be able to get it at a reasonable price because of the distribution system that we've established."