After years of tangerine peels, they finally became tangerine peels

It's the season for oranges again, and friends are rushing to buy them. Peeling the orange peel, a refreshing fragrance hits you in the face, refreshing your heart. Are there some people who don't throw away the orange peel after eating the orange flesh, but tear it into small pieces and soak it in water to drink? It is believed that soaking orange peel in water can reduce phlegm, relieve cough, and clear away heat...

Do this, right?

Oh, no no no! You may have a misunderstanding about orange peel and tangerine peel!

What is the relationship between orange peel and dried tangerine peel?

Dried tangerine peel comes from orange peel, but orange peel is not the same as dried tangerine peel. Orange peel must be aged naturally for more than one year before it can be called dried tangerine peel; while the more effective Guangdong dried tangerine peel needs to be dried and stored for more than three years.

Yes, it takes at least three years for the orange peel to "break out of the cocoon and become a butterfly" and "boil" into Guangdong dried tangerine peel.

Drinking dried tangerine peel soaked in water can relieve cough and reduce phlegm, but orange peel cannot.

Why can't we drink fresh orange peels directly by soaking them in water? Here are the reasons:

First of all, fresh orange peel contains a large amount of volatile oil, and drinking it directly in water has a strong stimulating effect on the gastrointestinal tract.

Secondly, the core function of tangerine peel is to dry dampness and resolve phlegm, but the fresh product is not dry enough. It needs to be aged so that the dryness can become stronger, the potency can dissipate, and the medicinal power can become purer. Only then will its medicinal value become higher and higher.

Again, fresh orange peels may still contain preservatives, edible wax, pesticides and other substances, making them unsuitable for medicinal use.

Now that the above points have been clarified, it’s time to seriously introduce tangerine peel.

What is Tangerine Peel?

Tangerine peel is the mature dried peel of the citrus plant and its cultivated varieties in the Rutaceae family. It is mainly produced in Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places. In late autumn and early winter, the peel is harvested after the tangerines are ripe, and then dried in the sun or at low temperature. As the quality is better with the aging, it is called tangerine peel.

Tangerine peel also has a particular "origin". For example, Guangdong tangerine peel is the dried and mature peel of the tea-branch citrus fruit. The most famous one produced in Xinhui District, Jiangmen, Guangdong, is also called Xinhui tangerine peel.

Tangerine peel has a long history of being used as medicine, and was first recorded in the "Shennong Bencao Jing". In the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica": "It can cure all kinds of diseases, always taking advantage of its function of regulating qi and drying dampness. It can be used with tonic drugs to nourish, with laxative drugs to purge, with ascending drugs to ascend, and with descending drugs to descend." It can be seen that in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, tangerine peel is a commonly used medicine with multiple therapeutic uses.

The "reputation" of dried tangerine peel was gained in the battle against phlegm. According to traditional Chinese medicine, phlegm is a pathological product formed by impaired water metabolism. The spleen is responsible for transportation and transformation. If the spleen's function of transporting and transforming water is reduced, it will inevitably lead to stagnation of water in the body. The lungs can regulate the water channels. The lungs' function of spreading and descending plays a role in dredging and regulating the distribution, movement and excretion of water in the body. If its function is reduced, water will stagnate, thus generating phlegm. Dried tangerine peel belongs to the spleen and lung meridians, and its taste is pungent and bitter, and its nature is warm. Pungent taste can move, bitter taste can drain, fragrance can move, and warm nature can pass, so dried tangerine peel has the effects of regulating qi and strengthening the spleen, drying dampness and resolving phlegm.

How to use tangerine peel?

In clinical practice of traditional Chinese medicine, tangerine peel is mainly used for spleen and stomach qi stagnation syndrome, damp phlegm, cold phlegm cough, vomiting, hiccups, etc. Some common Chinese patent medicines in pharmacies, such as Pingweisan for treating spleen and stomach qi stagnation caused by cold dampness in the middle jiao, Baohewan for treating food accumulation qi stagnation, abdominal distension and pain, and Huoxiangzhengqishui for treating colds caused by exogenous wind-cold, internal injury dampness stagnation or summer heat dampness, etc., all contain tangerine peel in their ingredients.

In addition to its medicinal uses, tangerine peel is also well-known in the snack world. Just thinking about the nine-processed tangerine peel and "Jigong Pills" on supermarket shelves, the popular tea - Ganpu tea, Lingnan delicacies such as tangerine peel duck and tangerine peel cake, etc., will make your mouth water.

How is tangerine peel made?

Some of you may start to wonder: Since tangerine peel is so widely used, if I dry the tangerine peel in the sun and keep it for a few years, won’t it become tangerine peel?

No. The processing and storage of tangerine peel also have their own particularities. Simply put, the first step is to turn the tangerine peel over manually, with the white side facing up, and place it on a dry site to dry naturally in the sun or air. The second step is to pack it in ventilated packaging such as sacks or cloth bags, and place it in a place with higher terrain, dry and ventilated, away from the wall, the ground, and the top, and take measures to prevent mildew, moisture, and insects. Finally, regularly check the storage of tangerine peel. For new peels aged 1 to 3 years, it is recommended to dry them 2 to 3 times a year, and for peels over 3 years old, it is recommended to dry them once a year, depending on the dryness and wetness of the tangerine peel.

Because the craftsmanship requirements are not low and the time span is long, it is better to leave the production of tangerine peel to professionals.

Finally, let me introduce to you some tips for choosing tangerine peel:

At first glance, the older the tangerine peel, the darker its surface color; after years of aging, the inner capsule of the tangerine peel will peel off; the surface of good tangerine peel has countless concave oil spots and is obviously wrinkled.

Second, smell it. High-quality tangerine peel volatile oil has many varieties and a unique aromatic smell that is refreshing.

Third grade: the older the tangerine peel is, the sweeter and mellower its taste. After brewing for 5 to 10 minutes, the tea color is darker and has no bitterness. However, the younger the tangerine peel is, the lighter the tea color is and the bitterness is.

Author: Jiao Yibo, Chief Pharmacist of the Pharmacy Department of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital

Review expert: Li Bin, deputy director and pharmacist of the Pharmacy Department of Tianjin Medical University General Hospital