Ingredient Monday: Orange Oil
Orange (Oil)
Botanical name: Citrus sinensis
If you can imagine the incredibly refreshing, sweet-tart taste of orange in your mouth - you might already know a thing or two about orange oil as an amazing ingredient.
Orange oil is an essential oil made from the rind of an orange fruit. An essential oil is an extracted hydrophobic liquid with special chemical compounds from plants, and orange oil is a by-product of making orange juice.
There's a lot of hype around oils like orange oil, but not without good reason. A long list of studies demonstrate the many wonderful health benefits of orange oil, and why it is great for your skin! Here are a few of them.
Acne Fighting
One common misconception about orange oil is that it has plenty of vitamin C. While orange is in fact a great source of vitamin C - and orange oil definitely contains some of this powerful vitamin - orange oil doesn't actually contain enough vitamin C to prove significant to our daily requirement for health.
However, orange oil may actually contribute to your health in an even more fascinating way! Orange, as a fruit, is rich in nutritional and functional elements, which lend it a variety of antioxidant an anti-inflammatory effects [1]. Orange oil shares many of these antiviral and antioxidant properties, and it's no surprise that these properties make it a great ingredient in fighting acne.
In fact, one study showed that orange oil could improve acne by reducing the growth rate of sebaceous gland spots - these are glands in our hair follicles that produce oil on our skin. The study investigated golden hamsters who were given various low or high doses of sweet orange juice and essential oil.
If that's not science for you, the study also demonstrated that orange oil was successful in "decreasing the release of inflammatory cytokines (notably reducing IL-1α levels) and promoting apoptosis in the sebaceous gland" [2]. To clarify some of this vocab, cytokines are responsible for the inflammatory reactions in our body, and apoptosis refers to the death of cells. Ultimately, what this is saying is that orange oil can be helpful in decreasing inflammation and excessive oil production in our skin!
Mental Health
Surprisingly, orange oil can benefit us in ways beyond the physical. Orange oil can mitigate many mental health disorders, including anxiety and depression, through a variety of means. Specifically, aromatherapy - a holistic healing treatment that uses plant oils and extracts - is shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in patients [3].
Randomized clinical trials on a diverse array of patients, including pregnant women, children, and even mice, showed that the inhalation of orange oil reduced pulse rate and stress levels, decreased depression-like symptoms, and less self-reported anxiety levels.
Since aromatherapy is a non-invasive and safe treatment, it's a great way of improving our mental health without serious or potentially negative side effects.
Soft, Smooth Skin
While we could be here forever discussing all the fantastic health effects of orange oil, let's go back to our skin. Orange oil actually helps your body make collagen, a protein that heals wounds and gives you smoother skin!
In fact, orange oil has been shown to promote the production of collagen, as well as increase the blood flow to the skin! Studies have shown that cold pressed orange oil prevented UVB-induced (ultraviolet B) damage on mouse skin ! In the study, results showed that orange oil helps to maintain collagen normality "by regulating TIMP 1&2 and MMP 2&9", which are biomarkers that affect the stability of skin collagen. (Collagen is vital in keeping our skin soft, smooth, and firm!)
Conclusion
From the wealth of scientific literature on the topic, it's clear to see that orange oil has its fair share of spectacular health benefits. Its properties range from boosting our immune system, our body's defense against germs, to reducing stress and pain with its antiviral/antibacterial properties.
In addition to these properties, orange oil can protect your cells from damage, make it easier to absorb iron to fight anemia, help your body make collagen, a protein that heals wounds and gives you smoother skin, and prevent signs of wrinkles and fine lines on skin. Who would have known? 😍
After researching orange oil and finding out the myriad of marvelous health benefits it had, we had to make sure we included it in our formulations.
Check out these Surrasa products that contain orange oil below!
Want to know more about other ingredients? Check out our other ingredient spotlights. Thanks for reading! Sources:
Jafarzadeh M, Arman S, Pour FF. Effect of aromatherapy with orange essential oil on salivary cortisol and pulse rate in children during dental treatment: A randomized controlled clinical trial. Adv Biomed Res. 2013;2:10. Published 2013 Mar 6. doi:10.4103/2277-9175.107968
Rashidi-Fakari F, Tabatabaeichehr M, Mortazavi H. The effect of aromatherapy by essential oil of orange on anxiety during labor: A randomized clinical trial. Iran J Nurs Midwifery Res. 2015;20(6):661-664. doi:10.4103/1735-9066.170001
Muthaiyan A, Biswas D, Crandall PG, Wilkinson BJ, Ricke SC. Application of orange essential oil as an antistaphylococcal agent in a dressing model. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2012;12:125. Published 2012 Aug 16. doi:10.1186/1472-6882-12-125
Zhang LL, Yang ZY, Fan G, Ren JN, Yin KJ, Pan SY. Antidepressant-like Effect of Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck Essential Oil and Its Main Component Limonene on Mice. J Agric Food Chem. 2019;67(50):13817-13828. doi:10.1021/acs.jafc.9b00650
Yip YB, Tam AC. An experimental study on the effectiveness of massage with aromatic ginger and orange essential oil for moderate-to-severe knee pain among the elderly in Hong Kong. Complement Ther Med. 2008;16(3):131-138. doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2007.12.003