Bitter Orange Weight Loss And Beauty Effects

If the sweet orange represents a high nutritional food, the bitter orange, although less appreciable in flavor, is a typical ingredient in many cosmetics and herbal. To do this you should use the peel of the fruit, leaves and flowers gathered before their opening.

Bitter orange, originating from India, this tree (Citrus aurantium) grows in Subtropical climates, regions including Spain and South Italy.

The infusion of flowers or leaves (5 grams of flowers in 250 cc of boiling water for ten minutes), is recommended for sufferers of insomnia; that prepared with the rinds facilitates the digestion by stimulating the secretion of chlorine-for both peptic the taste perceived by the taste buds of the tongue, and the contact of the essential oils on gastric mucosa.

Always from the peel, you get the bitter orange essential oil that has anti-inflammatory and disinfectant effect. A pleasant essence, called Néroli, is obtained from the flowers.

Too bitter to be eaten fresh, this citrus fruit pulp represents a typical ingredient of jams and is also used in cosmetics (according to popular tradition, can be applied on the face anti wrinkle product).

The bitter orange is also a typical ingredient of many thermogenic or fat burning supplements. Some American researchers have found that in precise ripening stages the unripe fruit and dried, is enriched with a mixture of amines sympathomimetics, whose represents the synephrine 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 derive also from its stimulatory effect on thermogenesis (body heat production = increase in calorie consumption) and lipolysis (fat utilization for energy purposes).

For all these reasons, the bitter orange is a typical ingredient of slimming and anti-cellulite products, where it is usually in combination with caffeine and other drugs or herbal extracts with similar activity (Guarana, Cola, mate Herb, Ephedra sinica, Garcinia cambogia, yohimbine) or diuretic, "Anti-Cellulite" and protective on the micro circulation (Bilberry, Birch, Centella asiatica, Pineapple Stem).

The use of supplements made from bitter orange maybe dangerous for  people with cardiovascular disease (heart disease, ipertertesi, obese, hyperthyroid), in children younger than 12 years old, pregnant women and lactation. When taken in large doses, synephrine, as all other sympathomimetics drugs, causes indeed tachycardia, arrhythmias,  hypertensive crisis and cardiac problems generally, although this effect seems less strong than other plant extracts. All these actions, dose dependent, are tougher still if the bitter orange is taken with other drugs with similar activity (so-called stack, very much in vogue in the world of bodybuilding).

The digestive infusions and extracts of bitter orange, due to their effects on stimulation  of stomach acid secretion, are contraindicated for peptic ulcer sufferers.