Aurantii amari epicarpium et mesocarpium

Aurantii amari epicarpium, also known as bitter orange peel, is a drug used in herbal medicines to treat dyspeptic symptoms and loss of appetite.

The bitter orange peels monographed by Commission E contain up to 2% essential oil, bitter and non-bitter tasting flavonoids(hesperetin, naringin) and furanocoumarins. The drug must have a bitter value of at least 600 and contain 2% essential oil (n. Ph. Eur.8).

Comeranium peels stimulate the appetite, increase the secretion of gastric juice and have an antispasmodic effect. The effects of flavonoids have been demonstrated in numerous experimental studies. The substance neohesperetin as an efficacy determining component of the bitter orange peel has an apoptosis-promoting, neuroprotective effect, inhibits experimentally the beta-amyloid aggregation (see below amyloid) in the central nervous system.

Aurantii amari epicarpium is used for dyspeptic complaints and loss of appetite(Commission E).

The average daily dose of the drug is 4 to 6 g, 2 to 3 g for a tincture and 1 to 2 g for dry extracts.

Due to the furanocoumarins a photosensitization may occur especially in fair-skinned patients. This has not been observed in tea preparation so far.

There are no known contraindications.

There are no known interactions with other drugs. However, a daily dose of more than 6 g may result in a reduced absorption of Ciclosporin.

Bitter orange peels are particularly well suited as a flavour correction. Bitter orange peels without essential oil are of inferior quality, but are easy to recognize. Bitter orange peel is interchangeable with orange peel.

1. Bharti S et al. (2014) Preclinical evidence for the pharmacological actions of naringin: a review. Planta Med 80:437-451.
2. Ho SL et al.(2015) Inhibition of β-amyloid Aggregation By Albiflorin, Aloeemodin And Neohesperidin And Their Neuroprotective Effect On Primary Hippocampal Cells Against β-amyloid Induced Toxicity. Curr Alzheimer Res 12:424-433.
3. Jia S et al. (2015) Hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of neohesperidin derived from Citrus aurantium L. in diabetic KK-A(y) mice. Food Funct 6:878-886.
4. Schilcher H (2016) In: Leitfaden Phytotherapie, Urban & Fischer Verlag Munich, pp. 253 f.
5. Szentmihályi K et al. (2015) Antioxidant value and element content in some tinctures used in medication. Acta Biol Hung 66:293-303.
6. Xu F et al.(2012) Neohesperidin induces cellular apoptosis human breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB-231 cells via activating the Bcl-2/Bax-mediated signaling pathway. Nat Prod Commun 7:1475-1478.