Enriched with Vitamin C, the citrus sinensis in the Rutaceae family is one of the most favorite fruits of everyone.
Oranges can be of many types, and while the sweet orange is commercial, the bitter is healthier.
The Seville orange or the most bitter fruit is the citrus aurantium and is widely used to make orange marmalade.
What is Bitter orange extract?
Bitter orange is widely popular due to its health, medicinal, and lifestyle benefits.
Thus, extracts are made out of peels, seeds, flowers, and fruits to produce goods, medicines, skincare products, weight supplements, and much more.
Synephrine, a very powerful chemical compound, is found in bitter orange peels, thus resulting in its importance in all fields.
Even as commoners, we often throw away the peel of the fruits, which is the main ingredient in the making of bitter orange extracts for further processing.
Benefits of Bitter orange extract
- Weight Loss
It is widely used to lose weight. Direct consumption, extraction, consumption as medicine, all are used as forms of effect.
Ora supplements are made with bitter orange extracts, which are popular for both weight loss and weight gain.
Fat burners, metabolism boosters and other weight loss products are also made out of this same ingredient.
Even studies confirm that bitter orange extracts surely increase the resting metabolism rate, also known as RMR.
The bitter orange supplements offered by various companies have no side effects and don’t increase heart rates, blood pressure, and more.
- Anti-Fungal
Fungal infections are quite common in our lives. From something as regular as dandruff to skin infections, fungal infections need to be cured, and if possible, without allopathic medication.
It is rich in Vitamin C and antioxidants and thus and an excellent cure for dermatological issues.
Various essential oils and body care products are also made out of bitter orange extracts, as a way to nourish and care for the skin.
- Diabetes
Bitter orange is considered to lower the level of glucose in the blood of humans. Grapefruit and lemon too are known for similar effects on diabetes.
All of these can be used to lower one’s sugar levels by consuming in proper quantities regularly, and definitely under some proper medicinal supervision.
- Blood Pressure
Bitter orange is said to be good for people with lower blood pressure as it improves or increases blood pressure in one’s body. It is to be noted that extra consumption might boost blood pressure unnecessarily.
- Indigestion
Bitter orange again finds itself back in Chinese prehistoric medicines, where it has been used to cure indigestion for about two thousand years now.
Even in the history of the natives of Amazon, orange has been used for its medicinal effects on indigestion, nausea, and blockheadedness.
Usage of Bitter orange extracts
- Anxiety
1ml/kg of bitter orange reduces pre-operative anxiety, state and trait of anxiety are lowered in general, and this works as anxiety scales are almost reduced by 4%.
- Dementia
Aurantium extracts or bitter orange is known to have miraculous abilities to cure or at least help memory impairments caused in dementia. Regular doses of bitter orange help revive memories and slow down further damage to the brain.
- Depression
Parasynephrine has anti-depressant abilities and thus helps cure or at least manage depression. Consuming bitter orange extract as medicine as prescribed by a professional doctor can help a lot better than anti-depressant pills and other allopathic treatments.
- Constipation
In Chinese traditional medicine, bitter orange was widely used for curing dietary problems like constipation, nausea, indigestion, etc. it was well known for its amazing work, and to date is an excellent home remedy for the ailments mentioned above.
- Liver Injury
Carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injuries are often helped and treated by compounds formed out of bitter orange extracts.
- Labor Pains
Rubbing bitter orange extracts have often evidently reduced labor pains and stress during dilations quite up to 10cms, according to sampling multiple experiments.
Side Effects
- Headache
Headache is the most common symptom that takes place when there is an overwhelming increase in bitter orange consumption.
Headache is often not a disorder in itself but a sign that something is wrong with one’s body.
Although we mostly ignore any signs of headache, in case it persists for a longer duration of time, it needs an expert’s attention.
- Heart Rate
Bitter orange extracts and supplements are often used as a natural means to improve heart rate. But excess consumption has often yielded situations where the heart rate increases beyond control and is no longer healthy.
Every food, even fruit juice or extract, needs to be taken in an appropriate amount, as prescribed by diet experts.
- Blood Pressure
There have been multiple cases where people consuming bitter orange have faces cardiac arrests, heart attacks, strokes, or at least perineal high blood pressures.
This is because ischemia takes place. Discontinuing the consumption of bitter orange has often cured people of ischemia as well, and it didn’t come back.
- Photosensitization
Excessive use or consumption of bitter orange often results in photosensitization or the disease of sun allergy.
This is more likely to happen to people with fairer or lighter skin tones as the less amount of presence of melamine boosts this disorder.
- PregnancyandLactation
Sufficient research has not yet been done on the effects of bitter range consumption during pregnancy.
Thus it is recommended that one tries to stay away from it, as it’s not worth the risk. Consult a medical practitioner for any further assistance or guidance.
Conclusion
Bitter orange is a multi-purpose fruit. Its peel, seed, leaves, stem, fruit, and even flowers are used to make a variety of lifestyle products, health supplements, dietary requirements and so on.
Consumption of oranges, both sweet and bitter, is very common in tropical countries. And let’s just agree upon how delicious orange juice is.
Although, like everything else, orange too should not be consumed beyond an extension or it can start causing serious harm to your bodies and organs.
It is vital to have control, and keep drinking appropriate amounts of oranges, and stay healthy and fresh, always.