the library

Bitter orange

Citrus· citrus

What it tastes like

On the nose: bitter, bergamot-lavender, camphor, floral. Among its measured molecules: Farnesyl acetate, linalyl acetate, neryl acetate, beta-ocimene, nerolidol.

Every one of its 15 compounds carries a paper the library can cite.

• 1,8-cineolearomaterpenoidreads as camphor (PubChem)Measured in 38 of 341 ingredients.cite

  trace at the immature stage and 14.72% at semi-maturity of Tunisian bitter-orange peel oil — named in the abstract, with limonene, as one of the two “most represented compounds in bitter orange oil”. The paper attributes to it a “fresh and cool aroma” that “could participate actively to the citrus aroma at the middle stage” — Bourgou et al. 2012, The Scientific World Journal (Table 3 (Variations of chemical composition (%) of essential oils obtained from four cultivars of citrus at different ripening stages), row '1.8-Cineole', 'Bitter orange' column)
• linaloolaromaalcoholreads as spicy, citrus taste (PubChem)Measured in 91 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.12% of the hydrodistilled peel oil and 0.06% of the microwave-assisted one; not detected by steam distillation. The abstract names it one of 'two oxygenated monoterpenes' that hydrodistillation alone recovered — Ashmawy et al. 2024, BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (Table 1, row 'Linalool')
• alpha-pinenearomaterpenoidreads as turpentine (PubChem)Measured in 72 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.27% (steam distillation), 0.25% (hydrodistillation) and 0.17% (microwave-assisted) of Egyptian peel oil — Ashmawy et al. 2024, BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (Table 1, row 'α-Pinene')
• α-terpinenearomaterpenoidMeasured in 16 of 341 ingredients.cite

  1.10 ± 0.27% of Tunisian bitter-orange peel oil — the second-largest peel constituent in this paper, which names it directly: 'limonene was the major constituent (90.25%) followed by α-terpinene (1.10%)'. Not detected in the juice — Jabri karoui et al. 2013, BioMed Research International (Table 1, row 'α-Terpinene', 'Peel' column)
• linalyl acetatearomaterpenoidreads as bergamot-lavender (PubChem)Measured in 12 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.29 ± 0.02% of Tunisian bitter-orange peel oil; not detected in the juice — Jabri karoui et al. 2013, BioMed Research International (Table 1, row 'Linalyl acetate', 'Peel' column)
• beta-pinenearomaterpenoidreads as terpene (PubChem)Measured in 55 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.11% (immature), 0.07% (semi-mature) and 0.38% (mature) of Tunisian bitter-orange peel oil — Bourgou et al. 2012, The Scientific World Journal (Table 3 (Variations of chemical composition (%) of essential oils obtained from four cultivars of citrus at different ripening stages), row 'β-pinene', 'Bitter orange' column)
• alpha-terpineolaromaalcoholreads as floral, lilac (PubChem)Measured in 54 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.56 ± 0.03% of Tunisian bitter-orange peel oil; 0.38% of the juice aroma — Jabri karoui et al. 2013, BioMed Research International (Table 1, row 'α-Terpineol', 'Peel' column)
• sabinenearomaterpenoidMeasured in 32 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.04% (steam distillation) and 0.09% (hydrodistillation) of Egyptian peel oil; not detected by microwave-assisted hydrodistillation — Ashmawy et al. 2024, BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (Table 1, row 'Sabinene')
• limonenearomaterpenoidreads as lemon (PubChem)Measured in 92 of 341 ingredients.cite

  98.86% (steam distillation), 98.68% (hydrodistillation) and 99.23% (microwave-assisted hydrodistillation) of Egyptian C. aurantium peel oil; the paper concludes 'limonene remained the major component in all samples' — Ashmawy et al. 2024, BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (Table 1 (Chemical composition of the essential oils using GC/MS analysis), row 'Limonene')
• myrcenearomaterpenoidMeasured in 68 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.8% (steam distillation), 0.67% (hydrodistillation) and 0.54% (microwave-assisted) of Egyptian peel oil — Ashmawy et al. 2024, BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (Table 1, row 'β-Myrcene')
• Farnesyl acetatearomaterpenoidMeasured in 1 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.57 ± 0.02% of Tunisian bitter-orange peel oil — the largest sesquiterpene-derived constituent of the peel oil, and the last-eluting compound in the table. Not detected in the juice — Jabri karoui et al. 2013, BioMed Research International (Table 1, row 'E.Z farnesyl acetate', 'Peel' column)
• naringintasteflavonoidreads as bitterMeasured in 2 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.07 ± 0.02 mg/g of the bitter-orange peel extract (5.23 ± 1.15% of its phenolics) and 35.05 ± 0.12 mg/L of the juice (5.59 ± 0.04%). The flavanone that makes this fruit bitter, measured in the same peel the volatile profile above comes from — Jabri karoui et al. 2013, BioMed Research International (Table 2 (Contents (mg/g) and percentages (%) of phenolic compounds of bitter orange peel and juice), row 'Naringin' — RP-HPLC against authentic standards)
• neryl acetatearomaterpenoidMeasured in 12 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.23 ± 0.03% of Tunisian bitter-orange peel oil; 0.36% of the juice aroma — Jabri karoui et al. 2013, BioMed Research International (Table 1, row 'Neryl acetate', 'Peel' column)
• beta-ocimenearomaterpenoidMeasured in 13 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.36 ± 0.00% of Tunisian bitter-orange peel oil; not detected in the juice. It is one of the eight monoterpene hydrocarbons whose peel values sum to the paper's stated 93.49% for that class — Jabri karoui et al. 2013, BioMed Research International (Table 1, row 'E-β-Ocimene', 'Peel' column)
• nerolidolaromaalcoholMeasured in 14 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.35 ± 0.04% of Tunisian bitter-orange peel oil; not detected in the juice — Jabri karoui et al. 2013, BioMed Research International (Table 1, row 'E-Nerolidol', 'Peel' column)