Chimpi

Chenpi, chen pi, or chimpi (Chinese: 陈皮; pinyin: chénpí; literally: "preserved peel") is sun-dried tangerine peel used as a traditional seasoning in Chinese cooking and traditional medicine. They are aged by storing them dry. They have a pungent and bitter taste. First taste of its herb is slightly sweet and aftertaste is bitter. Their attribute is warm. Chenpi has a common name, ‘ju pi’ or mandarin orange peel.

Chenpi contains volatile oils, nobiletin, hesperidin, neohesperidin, tangeridin, citromitin, synephrine, carotene, cryptoxanthin, inositol, vitamin B1 and vitamin C. Traditional Chinese herbal medicine utilizes the alcohol extracts of several citrus peels for specific health properties, including those extracted from mandarin orange and bitter orange.

Chenpi that is big in size have a surface integrated with deep-red scarfskin and white interior, and plenty of flesh heavy oil plus dense fragrance and pungency is of its best quality.

In general, old-aged Chenpi tends to have a higher quality. Since the products produced in Xinhui are of the best quality owing to rich supply of citrus, it is often called Xinhui Pi or Guang Chen Pi. It is normally cut into shreds before serving and presenting in the raw form.

The practice of getting citrus peels originated from Song Dynasty and has lasted for seven hundred years. Chenpi was of high popularity until Ming and Qing Dynasties. It was shipped to foreign provinces by businessmen from Xinhui in Guangdong. Due to its significant medical effect, a famous Qing doctor named Ye Gui (1667-1746) prescribed Chenpi as one of the ingredients in ‘Erchen Tang’, a decoction consisting two old drugs. Chenpi business brought wealth to Xinhui peasants and it also extended to food processing, logistics areas which forms a food production chain. However, there was a decline of Chenpi business in the 1990s until late 2002 when Chenpi farmers helped set up Chenpi Industrial Association with support from Xinhui Agriculture Bureau and Business Federation, to which Chenpi regained its popularity since.

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