The name "bitter orange", also known as Seville orange, sour orange, bigarade orange, and marmalade orange, refers to a citrus tree (Citrus × aurantium) and its fruit. It is hybrid between Citrus maxima and Citrus reticulata. Many varieties of bitter orange are used for their essential oil, which is used in perfume, as a flavoring and as a solvent. The Seville orange variety is used in the production of marmalade.
Bitter orange is also employed in herbal medicine as a stimulant and appetite suppressant. The active ingredient, synephrine, has been linked to a number of deaths, and consumer groups advocate avoiding medicinal use of the fruit.
Famous quotes containing the words bitter and/or orange:
“It is so much more difficult to live with one’s body than with one’s soul. One’s body is so much more exacting: what it won’t have it won’t have, and nothing can make bitter into sweet.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“the great orange bed where we lie
like two frozen paintings in a field of poppies.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)