Citrus peels are packed with secondary metabolites, but can be too strong for some tastes. Zest doesn’t store well because the essential oils evaporate quickly, so over the years I threw out so many peels before discovering this solution!
Use a micro-zester to completely remove the colored portion of clean organic citrus fruit. Add enough honey to create a paste and store in the refrigerator (a tiny jelly jar works well) for several months, or the freezer for a year!
Blending with honey prevents evaporation of the oils, and mellows the flavor enough to add them to anything that benefits from citrus: stir into tea or lemonade, use in lemongrass drinks, or add to fruit dishes. I usually have jars of lemon zest, orange zest and blood orange zest at any given time.
Research:
Citrus-derived secondary metabolites, including flavonoids, alkaloids, limonoids, coumarins, carotenoids, phenolic acids and essential oils, have anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, as well as cardiovascular protective effects, neuroprotective effects, etc.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4690266/
CAUTION:
Be careful of interactions with other medications. The “Grapefruit effect” is due to coumarin and furanocoumarin, which are also present in peels: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0142757