Orange+Tree

** __ Introduction   __ ** The orange (see figure 1) is a fruit that everybody loves to eat every day. Citrus is the scientific name for an orange tree or any type of citrus fruits from the Rutaceae family. The orange tree is actually a hybrid tree that has been combined with a pomelo and a mandarin. It is a small flowering type of tree that grows about 10m tall with evergreen leaves and orange blossoms on it (see figure 2). Oranges are grown outside in warm or hot climates between 60 °F - 85°F. Oranges originated from the southern parts of Asia and it moved to the north eastern of India, adjoining China and Burma, then to Europe and to northern Africa. But the orange trees continued to be grown in new places such as: Persia, Syria, Italy, and southern France, then to Arabia to Egypt. It continued to Spain, then to Portugal and finally to Florida (see all countries on figure 3). The word “orange” was derived from the French word “or” meaning gold. It is named “orange” because in the seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe, Louis XIV had named it because of his love for the fruit. Only the King could name the fruit however he wanted. There are different kinds of oranges in the world. There are the blood oranges, navel oranges, Persian oranges, and Valencia oranges. Their pH levels are around 2.5 to 3. However their pH level can change according to: size, age, color and taste. Oranges mainly used to produce juice which can improve the immune system since oranges are full of vitamin C.   **   Figure 1- orange Figure 2-orange blossom    ** **  Figure 3- the places that oranges were grown    ** ** __ The hybrid fruits  __ ** The pomelo and the mandarin are the two fruits that were combined to create the orange. A pomelo (see figure 4) is a pale green fruit with a very thick pudgy rind that has sweet white flesh inside the fruit. It’s one of the largest citrus fruits in the world and it is similar to a grapefruit, but a little smaller. It is about 15 to 25cm in diameter and can weigh up to 1 to 2kg depending on the size of the tree and the country that it grows in. They are usually located in the southwest part of Asia. People usually use this fruit for making jam or they just eat it raw and they can be dip in sugar, salt or other mixtures. Sometimes, the people will use the peels of the pomelo for cooking. A mandarin (see figure 5) is the second fruit that has been combined to create an orange. Mandarins are really tender and can be damaged very easily when cold weather hits. Mandarins are the small oranges and similar to oranges, but they are smaller than an orange. However, they are still from the same family but different name and size. They are half the size of an orange and they are really easy to peel because their skin is really easy to tear. It can be eaten plain or make into a fruit salad. They are usually located in the really hot climates. Mandarins can be canned and be shipped to places and buy it in supermarket because there are some people who do not wanted to buy them and peel them, so they can buy the store bought ones so that it is easier to get than get your hands dirty and smelling like mandarin peelings in your finger nails. **  Figure 4- pomelo Figure 5- mandarin   ** ** __ The different types of oranges   __ ** Different types of oranges meaning different size, smell, taste color and the country that came from. We all love oranges, but how can we tell which orange is which. The top three oranges that I will be talking about are the; blood orange, navel orange, and Valencia oranges. Blood orange (see figure 6), is a red or a crimson-blood like type of orange that the inside of the orange is all red. This orange is smaller than an average orange, much two times smaller than an orange. The skin is sometimes pitted; however it is smooth to the touch. Blood orange’s skin can be harder to peel than a regular orange because its skin is so tough that, people will have to use something to peel off the skin right off. These oranges are grown in Florida where the climate is nice and hot to grow. The uses of blood oranges can diminish the people who have heart diseases, some types of cancer, and LDL cholesterol. It can also help heal people’s bodies in the aid of cataracts. Blood oranges are really popular in making dressing for salad and flavor beer. **  Figure 6- Blood Orange    ** Navel orange (see figure 7), is a seedless type of orange that have a small depression at the end of the orange and they are really sweet and juicy once someone tastes it. Navel oranges have this bright orange color skin that is really easy to peel. Navel can be use for fruit salad, jam, can be extracted for juice, can be canned and ship it to stores as well, and can help people on their diets too. **  Figure 7- Navel orange    ** Valencia orange (see figure 8), is the name from Italy that produced the sweetest oranges, even though it was originally in India. These oranges can be about 2.7- 3 inches (or 70-76mm) in size. Theses oranges have seeds in them and they usually have none or six seeds per fruit slice. The Irvine Company’s Valencia operation in Italy has spit from their company and now they are called Sunkist. Valencia or Sunkist is use for processing juice or making jam. ** Figure 8- Valencia orange  ** ** __ The process of how to make orange juice   __ ** The first step (see figure 10) on making orange juice is to harvest the oranges from the trees. When the mature oranges are ready to pick, they are put into boxes and then they will ship the oranges to different companies where they process the oranges to make juice. Then when all the oranges are all unloaded, they are moving onto to the conveyor belt to the storage bin. The second step (also see figure 10) is when all the oranges are all been taken out and onto the conveyor belt, the oranges have to be inspected and graded to make sure if they are right to process the juice correctly. A certain person like an inspector would take an 18kg sample of the oranges and analyze them. They have to analyze them so that each orange is right for producing juice. Once the oranges were inspected, they are in the conveyor belt and now the oranges are washed. They washed it with some sort of detergent when the oranges are passing by with the rolling brushes. This is where they clean all the dirt and reducing the number of microbes. Once the cleaning and washing is completely done, they will rise and dry them, they will go to the next step. **  Figure 10- for the harvesting and washing/grading step    ** The next step is extracting the orange to make juice (see figure 11). This is the most important step when processing a well done quality of the finish product. By extracting the juice will affect the efficiency of the how the good the juice is. When the oranges are going in the juice-maker, they have to make sure that the peel must be off. The reason is that the peel contains bitter resins in it which the juice-maker does not want them in their final product. There are two methods on how to extracts the orange for the juice. Method number one: the oranges are placed in between two metal cups with sharpened metal tubes at the base. Then the cups push on the orange as the tubes pierce it and take the juice. Method number two: the o ranges have been cut in half so that they can force them through a knife. Then the oranges will be picked up and put on rotating reamers to squeeze out the juice. **  Figure 11- extraction of the oranges    ** The fourth step is concentration the juice. The extracted juice is at least 5 times more concentrated than squeeze juice. So they have to add water to it so that the juice can be extend when they shelf them in supermarkets. The fifth step is reconstitution. It is where the juice is finally ready to prepare the packing and shipping them away. However, the juices have been blend with water, sugar, acid ratio, color, and favour. This step has to be really careful because they do not want any of the concentration juice to be lost. The sixth step is pasteurization. Lowering the pH of 4 keeps orange juice safe from bacteria, but pasteurization is still needed to keep it fresh longer. Pasteurization stops enzymes from splitting pulp from juice, keeping a fresh-looking juice and increases shelf-life, flash pasteurization keeps flavour intact. The juice is passed through a tube and indirectly heated or, pasteurized juice is mixed with unpasteurized, then heated again to reach proper temperature at 85-94*C is good temperature to kill germs and prepare juice. The final step is packaging or filling. Juice is packaged while hot; sometime cans can be preheated. If packaging cannot take hot temperatures, juice must be packaged in sterile place. Hydrogen peroxide used to clean packages before filling the packages are passed through conveyer belt and filled. Sometimes lids are sterilized after filling depending on the package design. After filling, the packages are cooled as fast as possible. The packaged orange juice can survive about 6-8 months at room temp. (25*C). ** __ Beneficial and harmful impacts  __ ** Orange juice is growing very popular throughout the world. Orange juice provides vitamin C for those who are sick, or lack of the vitamins in fruit. The part of the tree to get the juice is of course oranges from the trees. Before orange juice was created, people had to be picked and hand juice the oranges. It was not great since a lot of people have different taste buds and it was difficult to find the certain type of orange that the people wanted. In the 1930s, scientists are trying their hardest on retrying to make the best orange juice in the world. In 1944, the scientists have found a solution to how to keep the juice without losing its flavor or its vitamins. They took all the concentrated juice and then put it in a vacuum and then freezing it so that none of the juice would lose its flavor or have any other vitamins in there, just plain vitamin C in there. In 1945-46, the very first concentrated orange juice was first produce and was the US who first sold it to everyone in the world. As the second war started, the disease called scurvy was high because the men have lack of vitamin C and they wanted a certain drink to get the vitamin C. Scurvy (see figure 9) is a disease where people don’t get enough of vitamin C in their bodies. The risk factors of getting scurvy are getting spots on their skin, gums will be all spongy, and some of their teeth would be lost because of lack of vitamin C. For those men who went and fought the war, the only best way to get vitamin C is by drinking a lot of orange juice so that they can continue fighting the war for their freedom (see video 1). Studies say that if people drink more orange juice because it is full of minerals like potassium and magnesium. It will help decrease blood pressure, reducing blood cholesterol; it can also get rid of fatigue, improves your immune system, the growth of blood cells and skin cells. There is a bad thing about getting too much vitamin C. Studies have shown that people who drink 500mg of orange juice everyday will cause damages to the white blood cells really badly because if they damage the white blood cells, that means there will not be any protections to harm any infections (eg. cold). Here are the minor (see table one) and major (see table two) effects of drinking too much orange juice. ** Figure 9-scurvy  **
 * __ Orange tree  __ **
 * **  Minor effects of drinking too much orange juice (table one)   ** ||
 *  -indigestion, diarrhea, heartburn    ||
 *  -mouth ulcers   ||
 *  -upset stomach   ||
 *  -nausea, vomiting, dizziness    ||
 *  -reddened face, skin rashes    ||
 *  -different types of cramps    ||
 *  -headache, fever   ||
 * **  Major effects of drinking too much orange juice (table two)   ** ||
 * -back pain   ||
 * -dental cavities   ||
 * -insomnia   ||
 * -may form kidney stone  ||
 * -an increase of oxygen, which leads an increase pressure to the heart   ||

** __ Conclusion   __ ** Orange trees have been growing all around the country. Different types of oranges have different taste, size, smell and age. But, all have common factor of making juice and providing vitamin C. Orange juice can be helpful when battling diseases and sickness, but at the same time it will cause harm to the body if drank too much. In today`s world, people still drink orange juice during the day and eat them raw for a snack. Even though there are still some negative impacts when eating oranges or dinking orange juice to people, but just try to keep it limited on how much people eat and drink oranges.

· [|**http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Orange-Juice.html**] · [|**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(fruit)**] · [|**http://www.buzzle.com/articles/facts-about-oranges.html**]** __ (both the text and the image)  __ ** · [(video)|**http://www.history.com/shows/modern-marvels/videos/inventions-of-war-orange-juice#inventions-of-war-orange-juice** **(video)**] · [|**http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/effects-blood-vessel-function,1576605.html**] · [|**http://www.datingmiracle.com/health-and-fitness/the-beneficial-effects-on-health-and-disease-of-drinking-fruit-juice-regularly-5062.html**] · [|**http://www.buzzle.com/articles/too-much-orange-juice.html**] · [|**http://annieharm.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/scurvy/**]** __ (image)  __ **
 * __ References  __ **