See also: synephrine in bitter orange - Essential oil of bitter orange - Bitter orange as an example of plant drug - Bitter Orange in Herbalist
What is Bitter Orange
If the sweet orange represents a food of high nutritional interest, the bitter orange, although less appreciable in flavor, is a typical ingredient of many cosmetic and phytotherapeutic products. For this purpose the peel of the fruits, the leaves and the flowers collected before their opening are used.
Originally from India, this tree (Citrus aurantium) grows in subtropical climate regions, including Spain and Southern Italy.
Properties and Uses
The infusion of flowers or leaves (5 grams of flowers in 250 ml of boiling water for ten minutes), is recommended for those suffering from insomnia; the one prepared with the peel, on the other hand, facilitates digestion, stimulating chlorine-peptic secretion, both for the taste perceived by the taste buds of the tongue, which due to the contact of essential oils on the gastric mucosa.
Also from the peel, the essential oil of bitter orange is obtained, with anti-inflammatory and disinfectant properties.
Too bitter to be eaten fresh, the pulp of this citrus fruit is a typical ingredient in jams and is also used in cosmetics (according to popular tradition, it can be applied to the face as an anti-wrinkle product).
To lose weight
Bitter orange is also a typical ingredient of many thermogenic or fat-burning supplements. Some American researchers have in fact discovered that in precise stages of ripeness, the unripe and dried fruit is enriched with a mixture of sympathomimetic amines, of which synephrine it represents its main constituent. This substance has anorectic properties, in the sense that it is capable of causing a significant reduction in food intake. The slimming properties of synephrine also derive from its stimulatory effect on thermogenesis (production of body heat = increase in calorie consumption) and on lipolysis (use of fats for energy purposes).
For all these reasons, bitter orange is a typical ingredient of slimming and anti-cellulite products, where it is usually found in association with caffeine and other drugs or plant extracts with similar activity (Guarana, Cola, Erba mate, Ephedra sinica, Garcinia cambogia , yohimbine) or diuretic, "anti-cellulite" and protective on the microcirculation (Blueberry, Birch, Centella asiatica, Pineapple stem).
Side effects
The use of bitter orange-based supplements can be dangerous in subjects at cardiovascular risk (hypertherthesis, cardiopathic, obese, hyperthyroid), in children under the age of 12, in pregnant and breastfeeding women. When taken in important dosages, synephrine, like all other sympathomimetic drugs, causes tachycardia, hyperagitation, arrhythmias, hypertensive crises and heart problems in general, even if this effect seems less pronounced than other plant extracts. All these actions, dose dependent, are however more severe if the bitter orange is taken together with other drugs with similar activity (the so-called stacks, very popular in the world of bodybuilding).
The extracts and digestive infusions of bitter orange, due to their stimulatory effects on stomach acid secretion, are contraindicated for those suffering from peptic ulcer and in association with NSAIDs.
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Properties of the Bitter Orange
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