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Rob (Kentucky) on 10/30/2025: 
An ongoing search for profitable new uses for food-processing byproducts has led Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists to focus on citrus waste. They've recently learned that a compound found in orange oil decreases blood serum levels of the protein responsible for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) that's a major cholesterol carrier.
Chemist John A. Manthey, at the ARS Citrus and Subtropical Products Research Laboratory in Winter Haven, Fla., has done extensive research on flavonoids in citrus peel byproducts. He has focused on the polymethoxylated flavones, or PMFs, which typically occur at very high concentrations in the oil that's in orange peel residue.
Manthey's research has shown that the PMFs decrease blood serum levels of apoprotein B, the structural protein of LDL cholesterol. Too much circulating LDL cholesterol can slowly lead to atherosclerosis, clogged arteries and eventual heart attacks and strokes. These problems are accelerated by chronic, low-grade inflammation in the blood vessels.
The original collaboration between ARS and KGK Synergize involved studies of the anticancer properties of citrus PMFs, but it subsequently expanded into in vitro investigations of the abilities of PMFs to lower LDL-cholesterol in animals.
Read more about the research in the September issue of Agricultural Research magazine 2005.
