Citrus aurantifolia

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Citrus aurantifolia - Lime

Economic Value

		Fruits are commonly used in beverages
		and desserts. The lime is served as a garnish and flavoring for fish and meats, for adding zest to cool drinks, and for making limeade & quot. Key Lime Pie& quot is a famous dish of the Florida Keys and southern Florida. Limes are often made into jam, jelly and marmalade. Limes are preserved in syrup. They are also pickled with salt or vinegar.
		The minced leaves are consumed along
		with dishes in Java.
		The chopped peel is made into a
		sweetmeat with milk and coconut in the Philippines.
		Lime juice is been used in dyeing leather
		in West Indies.
		Powdered dried peel and the sludge
		remaining after clarifying lime juice are employed for cleaning metal in India.
		Moisture Lotion made from lime is used
		as a skin-conditioner. Lime juice dispels the irritation and swelling of mosquito bites. The hand-pressed peel oil is mainly utilized in the perfume industry.
		In tropical Africa, lime twigs are
		popular chewsticks.
		The leaves are poulticed on skin
		diseases and on the abdomen of a new mother after childbirth. The leaves or an infusion of the crushed leaves may be applied to relieve headache. The leaf decoction is used as eye drops and to bathe a feverish patient; also as a mouth wash and gargle in cases of sore throat and thrush.

"We're finally going to get the bill for the Industrial Age. If the projections are right, it's going to be a big one: the ecological collapse of
the planet." - Jeremy Rifkin

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Crop Details

Botanical Name: Citrus aurantifolia

Common Name: Lime

Family: Rutaceae

Cultivars: 'Everglade', 'Kagzi', 'Palmetto', 'Yung' ('Spineless Mexican')

Origin: Southeast Asia (Indonesia / Malaysia)

Distribution: Europe, North Africa, Mediterranean, West Indies, Mexico, India, Egypt,
the United Kingdom, New Zealand, etc

Habitat: Warm, moist sub-tropics

Habit: Small evergreen tree, generally 10-12 feet, with many slender, spreading branches
having numerous, very sharp, axillary spines

Duration: Perennial

Leaf: Shiny, evergreen, leathery, alternate, aromatic leaves which are elliptic- or
oblong-ovate, rounded at the base, with minute, rounded teeth and winged petioles.

Flower: Pale Pink, White/Near White

Flowering Season: Blooms all year, repeatedly

Fruit: The fruit is round, obovate, or slightly elliptical, rough to very smooth hesperidium
with a slight nipple at the tip; peel is green and shiny when immature, pale-yellow when
ripe; the pulp is aromatic, juicy, acidic, greenish-yellow, multi-seeded in 6 to 15 segments

Sunlight: Full sun

Water Requirement: Moderate

Soil Texture: Sandy Loams

Soil pH: Slightly Acidic, neutral or slightly alkaline (6.1 to 7.8)

Salinity Tolerance: Sensitive

Propagation: By polyembryonic seeds so can produce multiple seedlings (Seeds
extracted from healthy fruits from proven mother plants will develop into robust plants
with longer life). Also by grafting, hardwood cuttings, air layering, and in vitro callus
culture.

Organic Farming: Liberal quantities of organic manure like vermi-compost, coir-pith,
powdered neem cake, bio-fertilizers can be added. The micro-nutrient deficiencies will
not be noticed in acid lime plantations raised with rich organic nutrients. Nitrogen is
supplied by leguminous cover crops. Country onion and Giant African marigold planted
around plants to repel nematodes and other foliage pests. Planting Sesbania (agathi)
around the young plants will be effective in ensuring the required shade, besides enriching
the soil. Several annual crops such as pulses and vegetables can be raised as intercrops in
the initial years. Organic pest repellents followed by a spray of fish ensilage and cow's
urine, vermi-wash, other botanical insecticides promote plant growth. The plants
particularly respond well to liberal application of organic amendments.

Economic Part: Juice and fruit skin (pericarp)

Crop Yield: The crop begins to yield from the third year of planting, and initially an
average of only 20 fruits from each tree. From the fourth year, each tree yields 100 fruits
on an average. From the seventh year, each tree produces about 2000 fruits a year.
There is fruiting all round the year in and peak yields are in April-May and
August-September. A well nurtured grown-up tree can yield as high as 3000 fruits a year.

Chemistry:Lime pericarp has essential oil (7%), whose chief components are citral,
limonene, β-pinene and fenchone (up to 15%). Further aroma compounds are terpineol,
bisabolene and other terpenoids.

Caution: Never apply undiluted oil on the skin without use of carrier oil such as sweet
almond oil, hazelnut oil, sunflower oil or grape seed oil.

Next to: Sour orange

Back to: Cinnamon

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		The root bark serves as a febrifuge, as does the seed kernel, ground and mixed with lime
		juice. In addition, there are many purely superstitious uses of the lime in Malaya.
		The pickled fruit, with other substances, is poulticed on the head to allay neuralgia. In
		India, the pickled fruit is eaten to relieve indigestion.
		Lime juice is taken as a tonic and to relieve stomach ailments. Mixed with oil, it is given
		as a vermifuge. Lime juice is regarded as an antiseptic, antiscorbutic, astringent, diuretic in liver ailments, digestive stimulant, as a disinfectant for all kinds of ulcers, a remedy for arthritis, falling hair, bad breath, convulsive cough, headache, intestinal hemorrhage and hemorrhoids, heart palpitations, rheumatism, etc
		Lime oil contains micronutrients that produce antiseptic properties, it is widely believed
		that lime oil also provides antidepressant benefits. It is also an astringent and helps to fight oily skin and acne.
		The dehydrated peel is fed to cattle. The plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or
		birds.