The alpha- and gamma-mangostins from Garcinia mangostana pericarps (GMP) exhibit antioxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties. The extraction yields alpha- and gamma-mangostins are often limited by the presence of the GMP cell walls. Therefore, the extraction and recovery of mangostins from GMP with an Aspergillus niger cellulase-assisted aqueous micellar biphasic system (CA-AMBS) was developed for enhanced yield of mangostins. Effects of the concentration of cellulase, the incubation time and the temperature of the system on the recovery of mangostins were investigated. The optimum condition for the recovery of alpha- and gamma-mangostins was obtained with the addition of 0.5% (w/w) cellulase incubated at 40 degrees C for 2 h. High log partition coefficients of alpha-mangostins (log K-alpha 4.79 +/- 0.02) and gamma-mangostins (log K-gamma 4.02 +/- 0.02) were achieved. High yields of alpha-mangostins (73.4%) and gamma-mangostins (14.0%) were obtained from the micelle-rich bottom phase with final concentrations of 3.67 mg/mL and 0.70 mg/mL, respectively. The back extraction of mangostins was performed with the addition of 30% (w/w) of isopropanol and 0.05 M of KCl at pH 9 to the bottom phase of the CA-AMBS. The yields of the alpha- and gamma-mangostins from GMP were considerably enhanced with the CA-AMBS and the direct recovery of mangostins was demonstrated without additional downstream processing steps. (C) 2018, The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. All rights reserved.