LIME, BECAUSE of its unique flavour, is ideal for flavouring fish and meats, for adding zest to cold drinks and for making limeade. The juice is made into syrups, sauces, pies, jams, jelly and marmalade. In the Bahamas, fishermen and others who spend days in their sailboats, always have with them their bottles of homemade "old sour" lime juice and salt.
Commercially bottled lime juice is prized the world over for use in mixed alcoholic drinks. Lime oil, obtained from the fruit rind, is used to flavour hard candy. With terpenes and sesquiterpenes removed, it is extensively used in flavouring soft drinks, confectionery, ice cream, sherbet, and other food products. The juice has been used in the process of dyeing leather while the lime twigs are popular chewsticks. On the island of St. John's, a cosmetic manufacturer produces a bottled Lime Moisture Lotion as a skin conditioner. The dehydrated peel is fed to cattle.
Of the two acidic or sour limes in world trade, the one longest known and most widely cultivated is the Mexican, West Indian or Key lime, Citrus aurantifolia. The lime tree is exceedingly vigorous and shrubby, with many slender, spreading branches and sharp spines. The leaves are pleasantly aromatic. The flowers are faintly fragrant or scentless. The fruit is roundish, the peel is green and glossy when immature, pale-yellow when ripe; the pulp is juicy, very acidic and flavourful.
Medicinal uses:
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.
The rind of the fruit is used as an anti-dandruff, anti-spasmodic, decongestant and sedative. The flowers are used for cramps. This species as well as other citrus are high in limonene, a bioflavonoid, ascorbic acid, and beta-carotene, all noted to prevent cancer.
The juice of the lime is a great disinfectant for skin sores and irritations. It is also used as a gargle when mixed with water. Lime juice is useful in treating liver disorders, rheumatism, or as an eye disinfectant (diluted with purified and sterile water). The juice, when mixed with hot water, is used to treat diarrhoea. When applied to the scalp, it is said to strengthen and firm up the hair.
Lime juice can be put on the skin to dispel the irritation and swelling of mosquito bites.
The juice can be taken as a tonic and to relieve stomach ailments. Mixed with oil, it is given as a vermifuge (kills worms). Lime juice is regarded as an antiseptic, an antiscorbutic, an astringent and as a diuretic in liver ailments, a digestive stimulant, a remedy for intestinal haemorrhage and hemorrhoids, heart palpitations, headache, convulsive cough, rheumatism, arthritis, falling hair, bad breath, and as a disinfectant for all kinds of ulcers when applied in a poultice.
Besides the fruit, all other parts of the tree are used for treating various conditions. The branches and leaves can be steeped or boiled and used as a bath or drunk as a tea to relax, to improve the appetite, and to dispel a bad or bitter taste in the mouth. The wood of the branches or the roots is boiled and taken to lose weight. The flowers are combined with banana flowers as an infusion and taken daily to benefit the kidneys. The bark of the tree is combined with cinnamon and brewed into a tea and drunk warm to treat hoarseness.
In Jamaica, the following uses of lime have been found: for coughs, colds, diarrhoea, belly ache, headache, pressure, sugar, arthritis, fever, spots on skin, tonic and abdominal cramps.
Source: Morton 1987, <http://www.laredosnews.com/medicineman_07.htm>
Dr. Sylvia Mitchell, research fellow (Graduate School), Biotechnology Centre, University of the West Indies, Mona; email:smitchel@uwimona.edu.jm.
