Common Name: |
Tangerine |
Other Names: |
Mandarin Orange |
Botanical Name: |
Citrus reticulata |
Genus: |
Citrus |
Family: |
Rutacea |
Native Location: |
SE Asia |
Cultivation: |
Well-drained, neutral to slightly acid soil in sun, with ample moisture during the growing season. Scale insects, mealybugs, and tortrix moth caterpillars may affect plants under cover. Citruses do not transplant well. |
Propagation: |
By seed sown when ripe or in spring at 16° C (61°F); by semi-ripe cuttings in summer. Cultivars do not come true from seed. |
Harvest: |
Flowers (C. aurantium, C. bergamia) are picked when first open and distilled for oil. Leaves (C. aurantiifolia, C. hystrix) are picked as required for flavoring and infusions. Oil is distilled from foliage, unripe fruits (C. aurantium) and ripe fruits (C. bergamia). Fruits are picked when unripe or ripe for culinary use, candying, or oil distillation, and either unripe or ripe (C. aurantium, C. reticulata) for use in Chinese medicine. |
Variations: |
Clementine Is a N American cultivar of the Mandarin Group, with an upright, bushy habit, and early, sweet, orange-red fruit. |
Height: |
2-8m (6-25ft) |
Width: |
1.5-3m (5-10ft) |
Hardiness: |
Min.3-5°C (37-41°F). Sometimes withstands short periods of 0°C (32°F) |
History: |
Almost everyone knows that citrus fruits are rich in vitamin C and provide delicious, thirst-quenching drinks. Many others are familiar with the fragrant citrus oils used in aromatherapy and bathwaters. Few people, however, realize that several of the citrus species have been used medicinally for centuries in Asian medicine, and are used increasingly in the West as well (where they were not introduced until the twelfth century). Tangerine is one of the best examples of medicinally used citrus fruits. |
Parts Used: |
Fruits, dried ripe peel (chen pi), unripe peel (qing pi), seeds (ju he). |
Properties: |
A bitter, spicy, warming herb that stimulates the digestion, lungs, and speen (chen pi); acts mainly on the liver, gall bladder, and breasts (qing pi); and energy stimulant, it affects the liver and kidneys, and relieves pain (ju he). |
Medicinal Uses: |
Internally for indigestion, vomiting, and wet coughs (chen pi); liver or gall bladder disorders, bronchial congestion, mastitis, breast cancer, and pain in liver, chest, and breasts (qing pi); lumbago, orchitis, mastitis (ju he). Tangerine peel has astringent, digestive, expectorant, pain-relieving, warming, stimulant, and tonic properties. It is taken internally for digestive disorders, including abdominal bloating, diarrhea, flatulence, indigestion, nausea, and vomiting. In Chinese herbal medicine, tangerine peel is additionally prescribed as a liver tonic and to treat bronchitis, congestion, gallbladder and kidney ailments, and productive (phlegmy) coughs. |
Culinary Uses: |
Fruits are eaten fresh, preserved whole in syrup, canned, or juiced. Peel is dried as condiment (kuo pei) in China for a sweet, spicy flavor and to reduce odors. |
Economic Uses: |
Essential oil is used for flavoring in the food industry. |
Bibliography: |
Encyclopedia of Herbs by Deni Brown Copyright © 1995, 2001 Dorling Kindersley Limited Pp 171-173 The Modern Herbal Primer by Nancy Burke Copyright©2000 Yankee Publishing, Inc. pp 137-138 |