iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Bitter Orange

For the fruit known as "Chinese Bitter Orange," see Trifoliate orange.
Citrus aurantium

Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Division:Magnoliophyta
Class:Magnoliopsida
Subclass:Rosidae
Order:Sapindales
Family:Rutaceae
Genus:Citrus
Species:C. aurantium
Binomial name
Citrus aurantium
L.


The name "bitter orange" refers to a citrus tree (Citrus aurantium) and its fruit. Many varieties of bitter oranges are used for their essential oil, which is used in perfume and as a flavoring. They are also used in herbal medicine. Other names include sour orange, bigarade orange and Seville orange.

Varieties

  • Citrus aurantium subsp. amara is a spiny evergreen tree native to southern Vietnam, but widely cultivated. It is used as grafting stock for citrus trees, in marmalade, and in the liqueurs Triple sec, Grand Marnier and Curaçao. It is also cultivated for the essential oil expressed from the fruit, and for neroli oil and orange flower water, which are distilled from the flowers.
  • Seville orange (or bigarade) is a widely-known, extremely tart orange now grown throughout the Mediterranean region. It has a thick, dimpled skin and is prized for making marmalade, being higher in pectin than the sweet orange, and therefore giving a better set and a higher yield. It is also used in compotes and for orange-flavored liqueurs.
  • Bergamot orange, C. aurantium subsp. bergamia is cultivated in Italy for the production of bergamot oil, a component of many brands of perfume and tea.
  • Chinotto, from the myrtle-leaved orange tree, C. aurantium var. myrtifolia, native to Italy
  • Daidai, C. aurantium var. daidai, used in Chinese medicine and Japanese New Year celebrations.

Uses in Cooking

The unripe fruit called "narthangai" is commonly used in Southern Indian food, especially in Tamil cuisine. The unripe fruit is pickled by cutting it into spirals and stuffing it with salt. The pickle is usually consumed with thayir sadam. The fresh fruit is also used frequently in pachadis. The juice from the ripe fruit is also used as a marinade in meat in Cuban cooking. The peel can also become an ingredient in bitters.

Health supplement status

The extract of bitter orange (and bitter orange peel) has been used in dietary supplements as an aid to fat loss and as an appetite suppressant, although in traditional Chinese medicine, it is always prescribed in concert with other support herbs, not in isolation. Bitter orange contains synephrine, a drug similar to ephedrine, acting as a stimulant (β3 agonist) with a possible risk of ischemic stroke and heart problems.

See also

External links

Poncirus
Raf.

Species: P. trifoliata

Binomial name
Poncirus trifoliata
(L.) Raf.
..... Click the link for more information.
Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
..... Click the link for more information.
Plantae
Haeckel, 1866[1]

Divisions

Green algae
  • Chlorophyta
  • Charophyta
Land plants (embryophytes)
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

..... Click the link for more information.
Magnoliophyta

Classes

Magnoliopsida - Dicots
Liliopsida - Monocots

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of land plants. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms comprise the two extant groups of seed plants.
..... Click the link for more information.
Magnoliopsida
Brongniart

Orders

See text.
Dicotyledons, or "dicots", is a name for a group of flowering plants whose seed typically contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons.
..... Click the link for more information.
Rosidae is a botanical name at the rank of subclass. of the subclass will vary with the being used; the only requirement being that it includes the family Rosaceae. A well-known system that uses this name is the Cronquist system, and in the 1981, original, version of this system
..... Click the link for more information.
Sapindales
Dumortier

Families
See text

Sapindales (pronounced /sæpin'deyliz/, last two syllables just like the word dailies [source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary, p.
..... Click the link for more information.
Rutaceae
Juss., 1789

Type genus
Ruta
L.

Genera
About 160, totaling over 1600 species. See List of Rutaceae genera

Rutaceae
..... Click the link for more information.
Citrus
L.

Species & major hybrids

Species
Citrus aurantifolia—Key lime
Citrus maxima—Pomelo
Citrus medica—Citron
Citrus reticulata—Mandarin & Tangerine

..... Click the link for more information.
binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
..... Click the link for more information.
Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné)

Carl von Linné, Alexander Roslin, 1775. Currently owned by and hanging at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
..... Click the link for more information.
Citrus
L.

Species & major hybrids

Species
Citrus aurantifolia—Key lime
Citrus maxima—Pomelo
Citrus medica—Citron
Citrus reticulata—Mandarin & Tangerine

..... Click the link for more information.
essential oil is any concentrated, hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants, which are called aromatic herbs or aromatic plants. They are also known as volatile or ethereal
..... Click the link for more information.
Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, objects, and living spaces a pleasant smell.

Describing a perfume



The precise formulas of commercial perfumes are kept secret.
..... Click the link for more information.
Seasoning is the process of adding or improving flavor of food. Seasonings include herbs, spices, and all other condiments (which may themselves be referred to as "seasonings").
..... Click the link for more information.
The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed.
Please see the relevant discussion on the .
Herbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts.
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc
"Independence - Freedom - Happiness"
Anthem
Tiến Quân Ca
"Army March" (first verse)
..... Click the link for more information.
Grafting is a method of plant propagation widely used in horticulture (gardening), where the tissues of one plant are encouraged to fuse with those of another. It is most commonly used for the propagation of trees and shrubs grown commercially.
..... Click the link for more information.
marmalade is a sweet preserve with a bitter tang made from fruit, sugar, water, and (in some commercial brands) a gelling agent. American-style marmalade is sweet, but not bitter.
..... Click the link for more information.
A liqueur is a sweet alcoholic beverage, often flavored with fruits, herbs, spices, flowers, seeds, roots, plants, barks, and sometimes cream. The word liqueur comes from the Latin word liquifacere which means "to dissolve.
..... Click the link for more information.
Triple sec is a colorless (or nearly colorless), orange-flavored liqueur used in numerous mixed drinks and recipes as a sweetening and flavoring agent.

History

The spirit was invented in 1834 by Jean-Baptiste Combier in Saumur, France.
..... Click the link for more information.
Curaçao is a liqueur flavoured with the dried peels of Larahas, a type of bitter orange grown on the island of Curaçao. A non-native plant, Larahas developed from Valencia oranges transplanted by Spanish explorers.
..... Click the link for more information.
For Brian Eno Album, see .
Neroli oil is a plant oil similar in scent to bergamot produced from the blossom of the bitter orange tree (Citrus aurantium var. amara or Bigaradia).
..... Click the link for more information.
Herbal distillates are aqueous solutions or colloidal suspensions (hydrosol) of essential oils usually obtained by steam distillation from aromatic plants. These herbal distillates have uses as flavorings, medicine and in skin care.
..... Click the link for more information.
Distillation is a method of separating chemical substances based on differences in their volatilities in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation usually forms part of a larger chemical process, and is thus referred to as a unit operation.
..... Click the link for more information.
marmalade is a sweet preserve with a bitter tang made from fruit, sugar, water, and (in some commercial brands) a gelling agent. American-style marmalade is sweet, but not bitter.
..... Click the link for more information.
Pectin, a white to light brown powder, is a heteropolysaccharide derived from the cell wall of higher terrestrial plants. It was first isolated and described in 1825 by Henri Braconnot[1].

It is mainly used in food as a gelling agent in jams and jellies.
..... Click the link for more information.
C. sinensis

Binomial name
Citrus sinensis
(L.) Osbeck

The orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus tree Citrus sinensis (syn. Citrus aurantium L.
..... Click the link for more information.
Compote is used in a number of cultures to define different dishes. Common preparation of a compote is a cooked dish of fresh or dried fruits, simmered whole or in pieces in a sugar syrup.
..... Click the link for more information.
C. a. subsp. bergamia

Trinomial name
Citrus aurantium subsp. bergamia
(Risso) Wright & Arn.

The bergamot (Citrus bergamia
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter