Welcome! Today, hopefully, you'll learn something new about the fruit of the bitter orange tree, which originated in Asia but has been part of “Western” herbal medicine for about 1,000 years. Perhaps best known, at least in some circles, for the production of essential oil from its flowers, the fruit of this tree is considered a very important herb in Chinese medicine. Western herbal medicine, however, has never seen it as an important herb. As noted eclectic physician Harvey Wilks Felter said in 1922, “(it is) stimulant, carminative and tonic, but (it) is used primarily as a flavoring agent.”
