supplements

Bitter Orange - Citrus aurantium

See also: synephrine in bitter orange - Bitter orange essential oil - Bitter orange as an example of a vegetable drug - Bitter Orange in Herbal Medicine

What is the Bitter Orange

If sweet orange is a food of high nutritional interest, bitter orange, although less appreciable in taste, is a typical ingredient of many cosmetic and phytotherapeutic products. To this end, the fruit peel, leaves and flowers harvested before they are opened are used.

Originally from India, this tree ( Citrus aurantium ) grows in regions with a subtropical climate, 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 peel facilitates digestion instead, stimulating chlorine-peptic secretion, both for the taste perceived by the taste buds of the tongue, and for the contact of essential oils on the gastric mucosa.

Always from the peel, you get the essential oil of bitter orange, with anti-inflammatory and disinfectant properties.

A pleasant essence, called Néroli, is also obtained from flowers.

Too bitter to be eaten fresh, the pulp of this citrus fruit is a typical ingredient of 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. In fact, American researchers have discovered that in specific ripening stages, the unripe and dried fruit is enriched with a mixture of sympathomimetic amines, of which the synephrine represents its main constituent. This substance has anorectic properties, in the sense that it is able to cause 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 caloric 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 combination with caffeine and other drugs or plant extracts with similar activity (Guarana, Cola, Erba mate, Ephedra sinica, Garcinia cambogia, yohimbine) or diuretic, "anticellulitic" and protective on microcirculation (Blueberry, Birch, Centella asiatica, Pineapple stalk).

Side effects

The use of supplements based on bitter orange can be dangerous in subjects at cardiovascular risk (hypertherapeutic, cardiopathic, obese, hyperthyroid), in children under 12 years, in pregnant women and during lactation. When taken at important doses, synephrine, like all other sympathomimetic drugs, causes tachycardia, hyperagitation, arrhythmias, hypertensive crises and cardiac problems in general, even if this effect seems less marked 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 bodybuilding world).

The digestive extracts and infusions of bitter orange, due to their stimulatory effects on acid secretion of the stomach, are contraindicated for those suffering from peptic ulcer and in association with NSAIDs.

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Property of the Bitter Orange

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