ABC Review Supports Safety of Bitter Orange

A safety review published in the Winter 2011 issue of HerbalGram, the journal of the American Botanical Council (Austin, TX), has concluded that bitter orange (Citrus aurantium) extract is safe for human consumption. The review counters comments made about bitter orange in a 2010 ConsumerReports article about ingredients presumed unsafe.

The bitter orange safety review concludes that “No credible adverse events have been directly attributed to bitter orange, or its primary protoalkaloid (p-synephrine).”

Nutratech Inc. (West Caldwell, NJ), distributor of the proprietary bitter orange extract Advantra Z, has welcomed the review’s findings. Some of those findings were that bitter orange and p-synephrine do not affect blood pressure and negative side effects of m-synephrine (often found in nasal sprays, but not bitter orange) cannot be attributed to p-synephrine, said Nutratech.

The review was authored by Sidney J. Stohs and Harry G. Preuss, both of whom have served as consultants for Nutratech.