West Caldwell, NJ—The May issue of Food and Chemical Toxicology has new research highlighting the safety of bitter orange extract (p-synephrine as Advantra Z from Nutratech, Inc., based here) taken alone or together with naringin (a grapefruit flavonoid) and hesperidin (a citrus flavonoid).

Some 67 healthy individuals (ages 27–76) took part in the double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Subjects took a placebo, bitter orange (98 mg per day of p-synephrine) or the combination product for 60 days, and blood chemistry measurements (including cholesterol, glucose, liver function, blood cell counts and more), blood pressure and heart rate were taken at baseline and at 60 days. In the end, resting heart rate, cardiovascular effects and blood chemistries were about the same in all groups.

This was the longest high-dose study ever conducted on bitter orange as a single entity, and was led by Gilbert R Kaats, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of Integrative Health Technologies, Inc.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, June 2013 (online 4/25/13)