Ju Hong (Outermost Citrus Peel, Tangerine Peel, Orange Peel)

Chinese Herb Actions

Chinese Herb Dosage

• What is the typical dosage of Ju Hong?

  Roughly 3–9 g in decoction (Bensky), or 3–10 g (Chen & Chen). As an aromatic peel whose action depends on its volatile oil, it is conventionally added toward the end of the decoction rather than boiled from the start. Doses in the classical formulas that use it run somewhat higher: the version of Er Chen Tang held on this site lists Ju Hong at 15 g, and Di Tan Tang at 6 g.

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (Bensky and Chen & Chen ranges, and formula composition amounts, as recorded on file). Reference only — not a prescription.

Chinese Herb Contraindications & Cautions

• Are there cautions for Ju Hong?

  No specific contraindication is recorded for Ju Hong on this site, but the category cautions apply and matter more here than for Chen Pi, because Ju Hong is the drier of the two. Warm, aromatic, drying qi-regulators consume fluids, so it is poorly suited to dry or heat-type coughs and to yin-deficient patients.

  • Yin deficiency, dry cough, or coughing of blood — not indicated; the drying action works against the pattern.
  • Heat-phlegm or dry-phlegm cough — Ju Hong is directed at damp-phlegm (copious, white, sticky sputum), not at scanty, thick, yellow or blood-streaked sputum.
  • Qi deficiency without stagnation — moving and dispersing herbs are not indicated where there is nothing to disperse.
  • Pregnancy — no specific traditional prohibition is recorded; qi-moving herbs are generally used under professional supervision in pregnancy.
  • Substitution risk (reference note) — because Hua Ju Hong (pomelo peel) is widely sold under a near-identical name, verify what you actually have; the two are chemically distinct (see notes).

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (recorded cautions); qi-regulating category cautions per materia medica consensus, cross-referenced against multiple online sources. Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Chinese Herb Toxicity & Overdose

• Low. Ju Hong is tangerine peel, a food material with a long dietary history, and no significant toxicity is reported at normal medicinal doses. One reference point worth recording neutrally: comparative analysis found that Ju Hong and the white inner peel layer contain measurably more synephrine than the fibrous threads. Synephrine is the constituent behind stimulant-related concerns about bitter orange supplements; the amounts present in culinary and decocted citrus peel are far below the concentrated extract doses those concerns arose from, and no such issue is reported for Ju Hong itself.

  Source: materia medica consensus; synephrine comparison from PMID 36171768, PMC 9469855. Reference note, not a safety guarantee.

Herb-Drug Interactions

• Does Ju Hong interact with medications the way grapefruit does?

  There is no documented clinical herb–drug interaction for Ju Hong, and the grapefruit evidence does not transfer to it automatically — tangerine-family citrus is at the low end of the relevant chemistry, not the high end. The grapefruit effect is caused by particular furanocoumarins, chiefly bergamottin and 6′,7′-dihydroxybergamottin, which inactivate intestinal CYP3A4; naringin separately inhibits the OATP1A2 transporter. Both constituent groups vary hugely between citrus species, so a blanket “citrus interacts with drugs” warning is not accurate.

  • What the species-level data shows — a comparison of twelve citrus extracts against CYP2C9, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 found grapefruit by far the strongest inhibitor, while Citrus unshiu (satsuma mandarin, a tangerine-group citrus) was relatively weak; inhibition tracked naringin, bergamottin and 6′,7′-dihydroxybergamottin content, and the mandarin-type material was characterized instead by narirutin and hesperidin with low furanocoumarins.
  • What has not been measured — no CYP3A4 inhibition study, and no human pharmacokinetic interaction study, has been performed on Ju Hong itself. The reassurance above is species-level inference, not a direct finding for this herb.
  • Where the caution is stronger — the substitute, not this herb — Hua Ju Hong (Citri Grandis Exocarpium, pomelo peel) is naringin-dominant, and pomelo is among the citrus fruits in which furanocoumarins are documented. Laboratory work on Hua Ju Hong has specifically examined its regulation of the PXR–CYP3A4 axis. Since the two herbs are routinely confused in commerce, identity verification is the practical safeguard.
  • Practical position — patients taking narrow-therapeutic-index CYP3A4 substrates should tell their prescriber about any citrus-derived herbal product. Precautionary, based on constituent class and on substitution risk, not on a demonstrated interaction for Ju Hong.

  Sources: PMID 18451520, DOI 10.1248/bpb.31.925 (comparative CYP inhibition across 12 citrus extracts including satsuma mandarin); PMID 28749005, DOI 10.1111/jcpt.12595 (bergamottin and 6′,7′-dihydroxybergamottin across citrus flesh and peel, incl. pummelo); PMID 17301733 (naringin and OATP1A2); PMID 23297175, DOI 10.1136/bmj.f1 (grapefruit–drug mechanisms); PMID 38157640, DOI 10.1016/j.biopha.2023.116089 (PXR–CYP3A4 work on Citri Grandis Exocarpium); PMID 36171768, PMC 9469855 (constituent profile of Ju Hong). Reference context only — not medical advice.

Western / Biomedical Research

Chinese Herb Clinical Studies & Research

Provided as research context — a summary of published biomedical study, not a therapeutic or medical claim.

• Is there modern research on Ju Hong (Exocarpium Citri Rubrum)?

  Yes, though most of it is chemical and preclinical, and a good deal of the literature indexed under “Ju Hong” is actually about the pomelo-derived substitute Hua Ju Hong — a distinction worth holding onto when reading it. There are no human clinical trials of Ju Hong. Chemically, Ju Hong is defined by what removing the white inner layer leaves behind: a high concentration of volatile oil and of polymethoxyflavones.

  • Composition — a direct comparison of Ju Hong, the white inner peel layer and the fibrous threads identified 48 volatile compounds accounting for 99.92% of Ju Hong’s volatile extract, with no volatiles recoverable from the other two parts. Ju Hong was the richest source of polymethoxyflavones — nobiletin, tangeretin, heptamethoxyflavone and 5-hydroxy-6,7,8,3′,4′-pentamethoxyflavone — which were extremely low in the other two, while the threads had the highest total flavonoid, phenolic and hesperidin content.
  • Digestive function (animal) — in a rat model of functional dyspepsia, all Ju Hong extracts relieved the model, with the aqueous extract improving gastric emptying, intestinal propulsion and serum motilin, gastrin and somatostatin; the pomelo-derived Hua Ju Hong gave only partial or non-significant improvements. Network pharmacology attributed the difference to Ju Hong’s polymethoxyflavones and limonoids. Rodent model only; the authors state the findings require further validation.
  • On the substitute herb — Hua Ju Hong (Citri Grandis Exocarpium) has a much larger research literature of its own, covering anti-inflammatory, lipid-metabolic and anti-obesity effects in cells and animals. Those findings belong to the pomelo herb and should not be attributed to Ju Hong.

  This is laboratory and animal evidence. It does not demonstrate clinical efficacy and is not a treatment claim.

  Sources: PMID 36171768, PMC 9469855, DOI 10.1002/fsn3.2897 (comparative chemistry of Ju Hong, the white inner layer and the fibrous threads); PMID 42083527, DOI 10.2174/0113862073460296260417065547 (Ju Hong vs Hua Ju Hong in functional dyspepsia rats); PMID 41544729, DOI 10.1016/j.jep.2026.121224 (review of the pomelo-derived Hua Ju Hong). Research context, not a therapeutic claim.

Chinese Herb Notes

• Which citrus herb is which? Ju Hong vs Chen Pi, Qing Pi, Zhi Shi, Zhi Ke, Ju He and Fo Shou

  Almost all of the confusion here dissolves once you separate two questions: which species of citrus, and which part of it. Ju Hong, Chen Pi, Qing Pi and Ju He are all the same species — the tangerine, Citrus reticulata — differing by part and by ripeness. Zhi Shi and Zhi Ke are a different species (bitter orange, Citrus aurantium), and Fo Shou is a third (citron, Citrus medica).

  From the tangerine (Citrus reticulata):

  • Chen Pi (陳皮, Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae) — the whole ripe peel, dried and aged; spicy, bitter, warm, aromatic; Lung, Spleen, Stomach. The everyday qi-regulator and damp-transformer, and the one that also supports the Spleen and appetite. “Chen” means aged: older stock is traditionally preferred.
  • Ju Hong (橘紅, Exocarpium Citri Rubrum) — only the outermost coloured layer of that same peel, with the white inner layer scraped off; spicy, bitter, warm; Lung, Stomach. Drier and more aromatic than Chen Pi, aimed at cough with copious phlegm. Held here under the alternative names Yun Pi and Yun Hong.
  • Qing Pi (青皮, Pericarpium Citri Reticulatae Viride) — the peel of the unripe green fruit; bitter, spicy, warm; Gallbladder, Liver, Stomach. Note the change of channels: harvesting the fruit young gives a harsher, more strongly breaking, Liver-directed herb for rib-side pain, breast distention and hard accumulations. Qing Pi and Chen Pi are the classic ripeness pair.
  • Ju He (橘核, Semen Citri Reticulatae) — the seed; bitter, neutral. Used for Liver-channel stagnation with swelling and pain in the lower abdomen and groin — a quite different indication from any of the peels.

  From the bitter orange (Citrus aurantium):

  • Zhi Shi (枳實, Fructus Immaturus Citri Aurantii) — the immature whole fruit; bitter, spicy, slightly cold; Large Intestine, Spleen, Stomach. Strongly breaks up qi stagnation and drives it downward — for focal distention, constipation and accumulation.
  • Zhi Ke (枳殼, Fructus Citri Aurantii) — the more mature fruit of the same tree; bitter, cool; Spleen, Stomach. The gentler, more upper- and middle-burner counterpart of Zhi Shi. Zhi Shi / Zhi Ke is the same immature-versus-mature relationship that Qing Pi / Chen Pi has, but in a different species and using the fruit rather than the peel alone.

  From the citron (Citrus medica):

  • Fo Shou (佛手, finger citron) — the whole sliced fruit of the fingered variety, Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis; spicy, bitter, slightly warm; Liver, Lung, Stomach, Spleen. A gentle, fragrant Liver-qi-spreader that also mildly transforms phlegm.
  • Xiang Yuan (香櫞) — the rounded, non-fingered citron fruit from the same species; a close relative of Fo Shou with overlapping qi-regulating and phlegm-transforming actions. Not held here as a separate record.

  Other tangerine parts you may see named but which are not held here as separate records: Ju Bai (橘白, Citri Reticulatae Endocarpium Alba) is the soft white inner layer — precisely the part removed to make Ju Hong; Ju Luo (橘絡, Citri Fructus Retinervus) is the fibrous white threads between peel and flesh; and Ju Ye (橘葉) is the leaf. Comparative chemistry confirms these are genuinely different materials rather than nominal distinctions: volatile compounds were recoverable from Ju Hong but not from the white inner layer or the threads, while the threads carried the highest total flavonoid, phenolic and hesperidin content and Ju Hong was by far the richest in polymethoxyflavones such as nobiletin and tangeretin.

  Is Ju Hong the same as Hua Ju Hong?

  No — and this is the single most common substitution in this group. Ju Hong (橘紅, Citri Exocarpium Rubrum) is tangerine peel. Hua Ju Hong (化橘紅, Citri Grandis Exocarpium) is the peel of a pomelo, Citrus grandis ‘Tomentosa’, from Huazhou in Guangdong — a different species entirely, dominated by naringin rather than by polymethoxyflavones. Because the names differ by one character and both are sold for cough with phlegm, they are routinely conflated in commerce and in translation. They are not chemically or pharmacologically interchangeable: a rat study of functional dyspepsia compared the two directly and found the tangerine-derived Ju Hong extracts improved gastric emptying, intestinal propulsion and gut-hormone measures across the board while the pomelo-derived Hua Ju Hong produced only partial or non-significant changes, which the authors attributed to Ju Hong’s polymethoxyflavones and limonoids being scarce in the pomelo material. If a supplier’s label says “Hua Ju Hong” or “Exocarpium Citri Grandis,” that is the pomelo herb, not this one.

  Formulas: the classical formulas held here that specify Ju Hong are Er Chen Tang (Two-Cured Decoction, the foundational damp-phlegm formula), Di Tan Tang (Scour Phlegm Decoction), Bei Mu Gua Lou San (Fritillaria and Trichosanthes Fruit Powder), and Ban Xia Bai Zhu Tian Ma Tang (Pinellia, Atractylodes Macrocephala and Gastrodia Decoction). Note that Er Chen Tang is often written up with Chen Pi in modern practice; the composition recorded here follows the version specifying Ju Hong. (Traditional formula context, not treatment advice.)

  Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (species, plant part, nature/flavour, channels and formula compositions for every herb named above, as held on file); cross-referenced against multiple online sources and materia medica consensus (Bensky; Chen & Chen); comparative chemistry from PMID 36171768, PMC 9469855; Ju Hong vs Hua Ju Hong comparison from PMID 42083527.