LIMON
Lemon
Botanical Name :: Citrus limon
Indian Name :: Bara nimbu, Pahari nimbu, nimbu, Kagjai nimbu
Description
The lemon is an important fruit of citrus group. It ranks high as a health food. It is sometimes mistaken for the lime, but the lime is a smaller species and the lemon forms a bigger variety, with a rough, thin and loose rind.
Lemon is oval in shape and light yellow in color with thick, rough skin. When ripe it has pale yellow pulp, abundant juice and a small number of seeds.
Origin and Distribution
The lemon is indigenous to the north-west regions of India, ascending to an altitude of 4,000 ft. It has been cultivated in south-east Asia from ancient times. It reached Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. It is now widely grown in all tropical and subtropical countries, notably in the United States, Spain, Portugal, France, West Indies and New South Wales. In India, lemon is cultivated in home gardens and small-sized orchards in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bombay, Madras and Mysore.
Food Value
The lemon is rich in many food ingredients, particularly citric acid. Different varieties contain this acid in different proportions ranging from 3. 71 to 8. 40 percent. It is mainly due to its citric acid and Vitamin C contents that the lemon is widely used in medicine. It is valued for its juice which is mostly used as an accessory food. It increases the flavor and improves the taste of various dishes. It is often used in the preparation of salads and prevents and discoloration of sliced bananas and apple. It is widely used in the preparation of lemonades, squashes, jams, jellies and marmalades. The lemon juice has a good keeping quality and it can be preserved for a long time with certain precautions.
Natural Benefits and Curative Properties
The various parts of the lemon used for medicinal purposes are rind of the ripe fruit, essential oil of the rind and expressed juice of the ripe fruit. A pale yellow volatile oil is derived either through distillation or by squeezing out from fresh outer part of the paricarp of the fruit. Though the oil is bitter yet it is highly valued in medicine as a flavoring agent, carminative that relives flatulence for treating gastric discomfort and stomachic that improves appetite.
Rind is also both stomachic and carminative. Lemon juice, the expressed and strained juice of the ripe fruit, is valuable as anti scorbutic and refrigerant. It destroys the toxins in the body. This detoxifying property arises from its high potassium content. The germs of diphtheria, typhoid and other deadly diseases are destroyed by its use. The juice also encourages bile secretion and is valuable in jaundice and gravels-a condition of small stone in urinary tract. The bark of the lemon tree is used as febrifuge which prevents fever and seeds as a vermifuge which expels worms from intestine.
Tags: LIMON
