Steenbergs Organic Orange Extract comes from the volatile oils in bitter orange peel from Citrus x aurantium. Bitter orange covers a range of fruits such as Seville orange (this used to be called the Bigarade) and bergamot orange. Bitter orange is the source of the flavours used for Steenbergs organic orange extract and the blossom is used for Steenbergs organic orange blossom water. Bitter orange is also used as the rootstock for the sweet orange. Bitter orange trees are an evergreen flowering tree that grows to around 10m in height (30-35ft). Orange leaves are arranged alternately and have an oval shape, being darker green on the upper side of its leaves than underneath, growing to 5-10cm in length ( 2-4 inches). Citrus trees are almost entirely infertile and are propagated through grafting, with the sweet orange often using bitter orange as the rootstock. They are grown outside in groves and must be grown in warmer temperatures of 16-29C (60-85F). The orange fruit is really a modified berry, with numerous seeds, is fleshy and soft with around 10 segments (or carpels) inside, and derives from a single ovary. The orange fruit is covered in a bright orange rind created from the thickening of the ovary wall. The orange seed is the "pip" and the white material within the peel is called the "pith". The pigmented outer skin is full of oil glands that contain much of the heady notes of citrus and when flexing a piece of orange peel it will release oil from the glands, sometimes as a spray from the limonene oils. It is these volatile oils that forms the basis of the organic orange oil that is then mixed with organic sunflower oil to create this orange extract. Ingredients: organic sunflower oil, organic orange oil