Abstract
The chemical composition of bitter orange peel oils from fully developed, living, unripe and ripe fruits was studied. Fifty constituents were quantified, comprising about 99% of the oils. Lower aliphatic constituents are formed during ripening. Ripe bitter orange peels contained higher concentrations of aliphatic aldehydes and oxygen‐containing monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes than the peels of fully developed unripe fruits. Changes were found in the concentrations of linalol and linalyl acetate (together 0.3–3.2%) and in those of limonene (92–95%) in the peel oils from living bitter oranges. The sesquiterpenes nootkatone and α‐selinenone could not be detected in the peel oils from fully developed unripe bitter oranges, whereas such oils from ripe fruits contained up to 0.15% of them. Thus, some oxygen‐containing sesquiterpenes also seem to be formed during ripening.

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