Bitter Orange or Seville Orange

Crown jewel of the Twickel Estate and in the Overzee Botanic Garden.

Fragrant flowers and fruits.

Fruit is used in making marmalade, drinks and cakes; the flowers are used in essential oils..

Citrus aurantium is also used in herbal medicine as a stimulant and appetite suppressant. It is also used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat nausea, indigestion, constipation, cancer, cardiovascular problems, and as a sedative. The sour juice has antiseptic properties, helps relieve nausea and haemostatic. In Africa the cut orange flesh is applied to ulcers and other inflammed areas and parts of the body afflicted with rheumatism. In Italy, Mexico and Latin America decoctions of the leaves are given for their sudorific, antispasmodic effects, and for their stimulating, strengthening properties and as a digestive tonic. A syrup prepared from the flowers acts as a sedative for nervous disorders and induces sleep. An infusion of the bitter bark is taken as a tonic, stimulant, to reduce fever and kill intestinal worms.

The bitter orange is one of the oldest plants cultivated by man - in China it was being cultivated as early as 2000 BC. The Dutch name, 'sinasapple', is a corruption of 'Chinese apple' by which it was formerly known. In the 17th century the bitter orange became an important component of plant collections in the Netherlands, thanks to the connection with the House of Orange, which chose the 'apples' of Orange as their family symbol.

Sour oranges are used principally to make marmalade. There is great demand for 'sour orange oil', which is extracted from the rind and used for flavouring confectionery, ice cream, cakes, puddings, chewing gum, soft drinks, liqueurs and pharmaceuticals. The dried peel of the immature fruit yields the essential oil, 'neroli oil'. Neroli oil or 'neroli bigarade oil' is distilled from the flowers of the sour orange and is sometimes used as a flavouring in confectionary, soft drinks and liqueur, ice cream, cakes and chewing gum. The ripe peel of the sour orange contains 2.4 to 2.8 percent neohesperidin dihydrochalcone, a substance that is twenty times sweeter than saccharin and two hundred times sweeter than cyclamate; the green skin can contain 14 percent neohesperidin dihydrochalcone.

The flowers yield nectar for honey bees.

In the Christian religion the Citrus fruit is sometimes referred to as the apple of paradise, for example in 'The Lamb of God' by Jan and Hubert van Eyck (1426-1432). Renaissance painters used the trees and fruits as a symbol of eternal spring, e.g. 'Primavera' by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510). On the paintings and prints depicting members of the House of Orange flowering branches or fruits of Citrus are often depicted, e.g. 'Vivat Oraenge' by Jan Davidsz. De Heem, ca. 1670.