🌿 Folk Prescriptions

It’s currently orange season. Oranges are popular due to their bright yellow rinds and sweet-tart flesh. After eating, people usually discard the peels—what a waste! Actually, orange peels are a medicinal herb called “Chenpi” (aged tangerine peel), warm in nature and pungent in taste. It regulates qi, transforms phlegm, dries dampness, and can be made into delicious dishes that boost appetite and treat chest and abdominal distension, vomiting, and excessive phlegm cough.
Try these methods:
Orange Peel Porridge
Add a few small pieces of clean orange peel to rice porridge just before boiling. After cooking, the porridge becomes aromatic and appetizing, helping treat chest and abdominal bloating or cough with phlegm.
Orange Peel Soup
Add a few pieces of orange peel when making meat or bone soup. The soup becomes flavorful with a subtle citrus aroma, reducing greasiness.
Orange Peel Tea
1. Cut cleaned orange peels into strips, cubes, or chunks. Brew alone with boiling water or mix with tea leaves. The drink is fragrant, opens the appetite, promotes circulation, and refreshes the mind.
2. Orange Peel Ginger Tea. Wash and scrape off the inner white membrane of the peel, chop finely. Wash fresh ginger, chop finely, add two bowls of water, boil over high heat, then simmer for about 5 minutes. Add orange peel and cook for 20 seconds, then turn off heat. Drink as tea. It soothes the liver, relieves depression, and eases abdominal pain caused by pregnancy-related qi stagnation or poor mood.
Orange Peel Wine
Soak clean, sun-dried orange peels in baijiu (Chinese liquor) for about 20 days. The resulting orange wine clears lungs and dissolves phlegm. Longer soaking yields better flavor.
Orange Peel Dish
After eating oranges, collect fresh peels, wash thoroughly, soak in clean water for 2 days, then cut into fine strands. Salt-cure for 20 days to make a delicious appetizer. Not only sweet and fragrant, it also helps relieve intoxication.
Orange Peel Cubes
Remove stems and damaged parts from fresh orange peels, wash and dry. Cut into small cubes, then marinate in honey or sugar for 20 days. Use as filling for sweet dumplings, tangyuan, etc.—refreshing and sweet.
Five-Spice Orange Peel
Soak clean orange peels in water overnight, remove stems, tips, and moldy parts, squeeze dry. Boil in water for 30–40 minutes, squeeze out moisture, dry, then cut into 1 cm squares. Add 20 grams salt per 500 grams wet peel, boil again for 30 minutes, drain. While still moist, sprinkle with about 15 grams licorice powder per 500 grams, then dry. Result: sweet, fragrant, sour, salty, slightly bitter five-spice aged peel with lasting flavor and medicinal benefits.
Orange Peel Jam
Use either dry or fresh peels. Wash thoroughly, boil in water for several minutes, pour out water, repeat 3–4 times until bitterness lessens. Squeeze dry by hand or cloth, chop finely (use a meat grinder for finer texture). Return to pot, add appropriate amounts of red sugar, white sugar, and saccharin, add a little water, boil, then simmer over low heat until thick and sticky. Orange peel jam is ready.
Eating Oranges Benefits Cardiovascular Health—Now is the season when oranges ripen. Bright-colored, sweet-tart, oranges are common fall-winter delicacies. Oranges are nutritionally rich—just one orange meets daily vitamin C needs. Containing over 170 plant compounds and 60 flavonoids, most are natural antioxidants. Nutrients in oranges help lower lipids, prevent atherosclerosis, and greatly benefit cardiovascular disease prevention.
How to Eat Citrus Wisely
During autumn and winter, citrus fruits abound. Fresh citrus pulp contains abundant vitamin C—dozens of times higher than apples, pears, or grapes. Vitamin C content in the peel exceeds that in the pulp. Vitamin C not only boosts immunity but also improves cell structure, enhancing brain stability and skin elasticity. Medical studies show that eating one orange daily can help prevent certain cancers (especially oral, throat, and gastric cancers), and reduce risks of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes. But eating citrus wisely matters.
Don’t Discard the White Veins: Many people pull out the white veins surrounding citrus segments, but this is unwise. These veins are called “ju jing” (citrus network). TCM considers them effective for unblocking channels, transforming phlegm, regulating qi, and circulating blood. Beneficial for chronic bronchitis, coronary heart disease, and chest discomfort due to prolonged cough. Modern research reveals these veins contain rutin, which maintains vascular elasticity and tightness, reduces capillary fragility and permeability, and prevents cerebral hemorrhage in hypertensive patients or retinal bleeding in diabetics. Especially beneficial for those prone to bleeding or with vascular sclerosis.
Limit Citrus to No More Than Three Daily: Since three citrus fruits meet daily vitamin C needs, eating more harms teeth and mouth. Citrus contains carotenoids; excessive intake raises blood levels, depositing in skin areas like palms, fingers, soles, nasolabial folds, and nostrils, causing yellowish discoloration resembling jaundice. This condition, known as “carotenemia,” results from rapid accumulation of carotenoids exceeding liver conversion capacity into vitamin A.
Do Not Eat Oranges and Radishes Together: Avoid eating oranges immediately after radishes. Radishes contain enzymes that form thiocyanate salts in the body, which inhibit thyroid iodine uptake and suppress thyroid hormone formation. Citrus flavonoids break down in the gut into hydroxybenzoic and ferulic acids, enhancing thiocyanate’s inhibitory effect. Frequent co-consumption may trigger or worsen goiter. Also avoid pairing with milk—citric acid in oranges causes milk proteins to coagulate, impairing absorption and potentially causing bloating, abdominal pain, or diarrhea. Wait one hour after drinking milk before eating oranges.
Caution: Be Careful When Brewing Orange Peel Tea
Orange peel is indeed beneficial—it’s a medicinal herb and commonly used as seasoning. Pharmacologically, it regulates qi, strengthens the stomach, transforms phlegm, and stops vomiting. It has no inherent side effects. Because of its benefits and low cost, some people brew it directly as tea. However, this practice is dangerous!
This isn’t due to the peel itself, but because oranges are often sprayed with pesticides during growth, leaving toxins on the peel that are hard to wash off. Drinking such tea can cause nausea, vomiting, or even fatal outcomes. Furthermore, during distribution, oranges are often treated with preservatives to preserve freshness, contaminating the peel with harmful substances. Therefore, do not drink water infused with orange peel directly.