Benefits of Bitter Orange

Bitter Orange

Bitter Orange is primarily used in sports nutrition to used to promote promote thermogenesis and aid in weight loss.

Overview

What is Bitter Orange? Bitter Orange, also known as Citrus Aurantium, is a popular stimulant native to eastern Africa, Syria, the Arabian Peninulsa, and Southeast Asia. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat indigestion, nausea, and constipation for millennia. However, today Bitter Orange is primarily used to promote weight loss, suppress appetite, and aid in athletic performance. The effects and benefits of Bitter Orange are relatively controversial, as Bitter Orange contains high amounts of p-synehprine; an alkaloid that is structurally similar to a stimulant banned by the FDA, ephedrine.

Bitter Orange is touted to promote weight loss; however, its safety and efficacy have not been fully established. A meta-analysis composed of 18 placebo-controlled human trials concluded that synephrine supplementation over an extended period of time did not lead to weight loss. At the same time, synephrine raised blood pressure and heart rate. Other studies have examined the latter of these findings and concluded that Bitter Orange did not raise blood pressure and heart rate when taken at recommended doses; this finding would benefit from further studies. A conflicting study showed that p-synehprine supplementation has the ability to increase the maximal rate of fat oxidation during exercise of increasing intensity.

Because of these findings, the NCAA listed Bitter Orange on their current list of banned drugs. There is limited research suggesting Bitter Orange does pose performance enhancing effects by acting as a stimulant, but more research is needed to validate this claim. A four week long study in which participants consumed 20mg synephrine showed that supplementation did improve some areas of exercise performance; however, after eight weeks, there were no clear differences in performance once synephrine supplementation was withdrawn.

Overall, it appears the industry is moving away from Bitter Orange and instead is using other forms of synephrine that appear to be safer, such as Advantra Z.

For more information on synephrine, read here ⬇️

Applications

Bitter Orange is typically found within pre-workout, energy, and fat burners.

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