Bergamot orange pear" or "prince of pears"). "Citrus bergamia" is a small tree that blossoms during the winter. The juice tastes less sour than lemon, but more bitter than grapefruit. The active ingredients in bergamot juice are neoeriocitrin, naringin, neohesperidin, ponceritin, melitidin, and mitrocin and 0.69% miriflin with 0% moisture brutieridin. Melitidin and brutieridin, only recently discovered, exist only in citrus bergamot and exhibit statin-like properties. Synephrine is not present in citrus bergamot. The bergamot orange is unrelated to the herbs known as bergamot or wild bergamot, "Monarda didyma" and "Monarda fistulosa", which are in the mint family, and are named for
Bergamot essential oil generally recognized as safe for human consumption by the Food and Drug Administration. For example, Earl Grey tea is a type of black tea that contains bergamot essential oil as a flavoring. A clear liquid (sometimes there is a deposit consisting of waxes) in color from green to greenish yellow, bergamot essential oil consists of a volatile fraction (average 95%) and a non-volatile fraction (5% or residual). Chemically, it is a complex mixture of many classes of organic substances, particularly in the volatile fraction, including terpenes, esters, alcohols and aldehydes, and for the non-volatile fraction, oxygenated heterocyclic compounds as coumarins