Amended Bitter Orange - Ephedra in disguise ? by Jenny Mathers

If you read my last article about bitter orange or citrus aurantium, it was pretty clear how I felt about the herb. I'd read the available research concerning bitter orange, and while there was some evidence supporting bitter orange, the overall picture did not look good.

So that's the picture I painted, however, there were some facts that I was unaware of at the time, which I felt you might be interested in if you're researching bitter orange.

In order to lay these out, I want to answer four questions:

1. What Is Bitter Orange (Citrus Aurantium) Really ?

2. So does Bitter Orange act similarly to ephedrine ?

3. What about the reports of adverse ill effects of bitter orange ?

4. Is bitter orange safe to use and does it work ?

It's a bit long, but what the heck !

What Is Bitter Orange Really ?:

The Bitter Orange extract found in popular fat burners, is made from the unripe fruit of the citrus aurantium tree. The fruit is picked when they are a dark green in color, halved, dried and then milled into a powder. This makes the herb Zhi Shi[1]. Bitter orange is the western name for Zhi Shi.

The bitter orange herb contains five alkaloids (see alkaloid definition[5]), the most dominant of which is Synephrine (the compound I referred to in my last article), structurally similar to ephedrine. However, while they are similar, they're not the same.

Chemically, both synephrine and ephedrine stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and at a cellular level, affect classes of cells called alpha cells, and to a lesser extent, beta cells[6]. Alpha and beta cells can then be divided into classes of beta and alpha cells. Beta(1) and beta(2) cell receptors are believed to be responsible for cardiac and pulmonary functions. Beta(3) cell receptors are believed to be responsible for fat burning or thermogenesis. Ephedrine will affect beta(1), beta(2) and beta(3) cell receptors, however, of the beta-cell receptors, synephrine appears to only affect beta(3) cells.[7].

So does Bitter Orange act similarly to ephedrine ?

Does it ? While previously, I've presented a very black and white view of whether it acts similarly to ephedrine, I am now not so sure.

Generally speaking because synephrine stimulates beta(3) cells but not beta(2) and beta(1) cells, it can provide the thermogenic effects without the undesirable cardiac side effects that ephedrine did.

What about the reports of adverse ill effects of bitter orange ?

The American Herbal Products Association has found that there were errors by the FDA in the reported adverse event reports attributed to the use of bitter orange in September 2004[3]. The association found that numbers reported in the media were in fact duplicates for adverse event reports for ephedrine, and when all was said and done, there was really only one report of an adverse reaction attributed to a bitter orange supplement, where no other ingredient was included in the supplement. In this particular case, it involved a 74 year old woman who had been taking prescription medication and two other herbal preparations simultaneously. This one case occurred more than five years ago[3].

What about the 55 year old woman reported by Nykamp DL, Fackih MN, Compton AL (2004), who experienced chest pain after consuming a supplement containing bitter orange. Researchers in this case study had commented "Based on the Naranjo probability scale, C. aurantium is possibly associated with this cardiovascular event"[4], however, as bitter orange was not the only ingredient in the supplement, it cannot be known whether in this case, that bitter orange was the herb responsible.

Is bitter orange safe to use and does it work ?

Now there are many others, who felt as I did, that bitter orange is another Ephedra waiting to happen, and will have the same consequences. However, when bitter orange is taken in isolation, it does not have adverse side effects.

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BIO:

Research resource for fat burning foods and supplements. Fat burning food research information allowing you to take the guess work out of fat burning.

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