|
Botany
Small, erect tree
with smooth, greenish white shoots with spinescent thorns. Leaves
are oblong to subelliptic, about 4 cm wide to 10 cm long, with
narrowly winged petioles. Flowers are white, solitary or few
clustered, smooth, and growing from the uppermost leaf axils.
Fruit is spherical, 5 to 9 cm in diameter, the skin orange red
and tight; partitioned inside with yellowish juice sacks.
Distribution
Found throughout
the Philippines, invariably planted.
Chemical constituents and characteristics
Emmenagogue, aromatic,
stomachic, tonic, astringent, mildly carminative
Citric acid, 0.29%; volatile oil-citral, 4%, geraniol, 12%, d-camphene,
d-limonene, d-linalool, anthranilic acid methyl ester 0.3%, linalyl
acetate 6.35%; indol; stachydrine (alkaloid); hesperidin; fatty
oil; carotene; pectin, 6%; vitamins A, B, and C; enzymes; sugar.
The flowers and rind
of the fresh fruit contain neroli, a volatile oil, a fragrant
yellowish liquid with a bitter and aromatic taste.
The leaves and young
unripe fruit contain a volatile oil, the oil of orange leaf or
"neroli petit" grain or essence de "pettitgrain."
The oil consists of limonene 20 percent, nerolo 30 percent, nerolyl-acetate
40 percent and geranio 3 percent.
Parts
used
Flowers, fruit
and rind.
Uses:
Folkloric
Gas pains: Take
decoction of rind as tea.
Nausea and fainting: Squeeze rind near nostril for irritant inhalation.
Dried flowers used as preventive for dysentery.
Orange peel used in preparation of tincture of cinchona and tincture
of gentian.
Dried rind is used as tonic dyspepsia and for general debility.
Dried rind is rubbed on the face for acne or eczema.
Water distilled from the flowers used as stimulant.
Nutrition
A good source of vitamin C.
Dried flowers is a pleasant flavoring agent.
Availability
Cultivated
Wild-crafted.
|