Remember when your grandmother used to make candied orange peels? She lived to be 96. :-)

Lynda
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By George Citroner
6/18/2024

Researchers may have uncovered a health secret hiding in plain sight.
The orange peel most people mindlessly toss in the trash after squeezing out the juice packs a powerful punch when it comes to combating cardiovascular disease risk factors, a new study suggests.
Reduces Levels of Compound Linked to Heart Risk
In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, scientists examined the effects of an orange extract on compounds linked to heart disease, suggesting that orange peels may be repurposed as a natural health supplement or food ingredient.

Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a compound linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, can build up in the body, and too much of it can increase the risk of heart problems. But the extract from orange peels can reduce the amount of TMAO that gets produced.

Trimethylamine (TMA), another compound linked to higher risk of heart problems and produced when the body digests red meat, is made by tiny organisms called gut microbiota that live in the stomach. The orange peel extract makes it harder for these microbiota to produce TMA.

The researchers tested the production of TMAO and TMA using two types of extracts: polar and non-polar fractions. (The polar fraction includes anything that dissolves in the water or vinegar part of the mixture, while the non-polar fraction includes anything that dissolves in the oil part of the mixture and stays away from the water.)
The non-polar fraction effectively reduced TMAO and TMA production, while the polar fraction contained feruloylputrescine, a compound that significantly inhibited the enzyme needed for TMA production.