Citrus aurantium. Citrus medica.

CITRUS AURANTIUM, L. Orange tree. Native of South Florida. Cultivated from Florida to Louisiana. Very useful tree. Wood similar to Box, but softer. Leaves bitter, anodyne, diaphoretic, stomachic, forming a fine medical tea in nervous diseases, debility, &c. Flowers delightful fragrant; their essential oil called Nerolium, contains a concrete oil, Neroline; analeptic, antispasmodic, fine condiment and perfume. Fruit delicious, sweet and acid, many kinds, yellow or red, large or small, bitter, &c. The young fruits called Arancini in Italy, from the size of a pea to a walnut, make a fine bitter tincture, aromatic and stomachic, good preserves, &c. used also to keep cauteries open. Their bitter principle, called Hesperidine, found also with an essential oil in the orange peel, much used in syrup and powder, &c. as a good tonic, corroborant, pellent and vermifuge, useful in convulsions, histerics, hypochondria, jaundice, ischuria, hemorrhage of uterus alone or united to Nerolium. The Curasso liquor made with it. The unripe juice is acid, equal to lemons. Ripe juice sweet, healthy, cooling, useful against scurvy and in fevers: the Orangeade made made with it and sugar, also the Orange wine. Orange juice and sea salt is a popular purgative in Jamaica. Seeds bitter, forming a bitter emulsion as good as the leaves or buds, and vermifuge.


CITRUS MEDICA, L. Lemon tree. With the last and equivalent. Many varieties, Limes, Citron, Bergamot, &c. The oils of Lemon peel and Bergamot peel well known as perfumes. Thick rind of Citrons fine tonic preserve. Inner bark white, tonic. Leaves, blossoms and seeds like those of Oranges. Juice very acid, containing much citric acid and mucilage, fine condiment, lemonade grateful drink, very useful in all fevers, scurvy, gravel, &c. Antiseptic, refrigerant, diuretic and anti-emetic. Punch is a bad drink, it gives head ache and dyspepsia. Wine punch is grateful and healthy. Citric acid is used in the arts. Oil of lemons to take off spots of grease. Lime juice purified of the mucilage, employed as mordaunt by the dyers.


Medical Flora, or Manual of the Medical Botany of the United States of North America, Vol. 2, 1830, was written by C. S. Rafinesque.