What it is:
This herb is theimmature fruit of Citrus aurantium L., or Citrus sinensisOsbeck (familyRutaceae) which isproduced in therovinces of Sichuan,Jiangxi, Fujian andZhejiang. It iscollected in earlysummer, dried insunlight, sliced,and used unpreparedor stir-baked withwheat bran.

Property:
Bitter and pungent in flavour, slightly cold in property, acting on spleen, stomach and large intestine channels.

Effects:
Relievingstagnation of qi toremove food stagnation and resolving phlegm to relieve feeling offullness.

Used for:
1. Abdominal dis-tension and pain due to stagnation in the interior and obstruc-tion of the flow of qi. To treat abdominal pain, constipation and eructation withfetid odour due to stagnation of indi-gested food, it is used with hawthorn fruit, germinated barley and medicated leaven; to relieveconstipation, abdomi-nal pain and disten-sion due to heat accumulation, it is used with magnolia bark and rhubarb,as in Minor Decoction for Purging DownDigestive Qi (Xiao Chengqi Tang). Fortreating diarrheaand dysentery withtenesmus due to accumulation of damp-heat, it can be used with rhubarb rhizome,coptis and scutellaria root, as in Pill of Immature Bitter Orange for Removing Stagnation(Zhishi Daozhi Wan). For treating abdominaldistension after meal due to dysfunction of the spleen in trans-porting and distribu-ting nutrients, it should be used withwhite atractylodesrhizome, as in Pill of Immature BitterOrange and WhiteAtractylodes. (ZhiZhu Wan).

2. Feeling of stiffness and fullness in the chest and upper abdomen due to obstruction of normal flow of qi by phlegm. For the treatment of chest pain and short-ness of breath due to insufficiency ofthe chest-yang andstagnation of phlegm,it can be used with macrostem onion, innamon twig and trichosanthes fruit,as in Decoction ofImmature Bitter Orange, MacrostemOnion and CinnamonTwig (Zhishi XiebaiGuizhi Tang). Forrelieving the feeling of fullness in the chest and abdominaldistension due tostagnation of damp- phlegm in the middle-jiao, it can be used with Tangerine Peel and fresh ginger, as in Decoction of tan-gerine peel, Immature Bitter Orange and Fresh Ginger (Ju ZhiJiang Tang). In addition, imma-ture bitter orange can be used in the treatment of gastrop-tosis, gastric dila-tation, prolapse of rectum and hysterop-tosis, but it must be used in combination with astragalus root,cimicifuga, etc. The ripe fruitof Citrus aurantiumL. and Citrus wilsonii Tanaka is called bitter orange, whichhas the save effectas immature bitterorange but is less strong inaction. Bitter orange is prin-cipally used for relieving epigastricdistension by promot-ing flow of qi.

Dosage and admi-nistration: 3-10g, decocted in water for an oral dose.

Precautions: Imma-ture bitter orange should be given cau-tiously for patients with hypofunction of the spleen and stomachand for pregnant women.