 The true lemon tree reaches 10 to 20 ft (3-6 m) in height and usually has sharp thorns on the twigs. The alternate leaves, reddish when young, become dark-green above, light-green below. The mildly fragrant flowers may be solitary or there may be 2 or more clustered in the leaf axils. Buds are reddish; the opened flowers have 4 or 5 petals long, white on the upper surface, purplish beneath, and 20-40 more or less united stamens with yellow anthers. Some fruits are seedless, most have a few seeds.
Origin and Distribution
The true home of the lemon is unknown, though some have linked it to northwestern India. It is supposed to have been introduced into southern Italy in 200 A.D. and to have been cultivated in Iraq and Egypt by 700 A.D. It reached Sicily before 1000 and China between 760 and 1297 A.D. Arabs distributed it widely in the Mediterranean region between 1000 and 1150 A.D. It was prized for its medicinal virtues in the palace of the Sultan of Egypt and Syria in the period 1174-1193 A.D. Christopher Columbus carried lemon seeds to Hispaniola in 1493. The Spaniards may have included lemons among the fruits they introduced to St. Augustine. They were grown in California in the years 1751-1768. Lemons were reported to be increasingly planted in northeastern Florida in 1839. Because of heavy imports from Sicily, commercial culture in Florida and California was begun soon after 1870 and grew to the point where 140,000 boxes were being shipped out of Florida alone.
Lemons are rarely grown for the fresh fruit market in Latin America. In South America, Argentina leads in lemon culture with Chile a distant second. Among the world's leading lemon growers and exporters are Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, South Africa and Australia.
 Lemon juice is widely known as a diuretic, antiscorbutic, astringent, and febrifuge. In Italy, the sweetened juice is given to relieve gingivitis, stomatitis, and inflammation of the tongue. Lemon juice in hot water has been widely advocated as a daily laxative and preventive of the common cold, but daily doses have been found to erode the enamel of the teeth. Prolonged use will reduce the teeth to the level of the gums. Lemon juice and honey, or lemon juice with salt or ginger, is taken when needed as a cold remedy. It was the juice of the Mediterranean sweet lemon, not the lime, that was carried aboard British sailing ships of the 18th Century to prevent scurvy, though the sailors became known as "limeys".
Oil expressed from lemon seeds is employed medicinally. The root decoction is taken as a treatment for fever in Cuba; for gonorrhea in West Africa. An infusion of the bark or of the peel of the fruit is given to relieve colic.
Lemon Essential Oil is a powerful antiseptic. Not only has it been used to clean contaminated surfaces, such as a butcher's cutting block, but it has a powerful antibacterial and antiviral effect attributable to its limonene content. Lemon Essential Oil also contains antifungal compounds. Some people have even used lemon to disinfect questionable drinking water. Because of its vitamin content, Lemon Essential Oil offers strong support to the immune system. Rather than exhibit an extreme acidic quality, Lemon Essential Oil works as an excellent stabilizer of the body's acidity - alkalinity content. And its astringent qualities make lemon oil useful in the home for many conditions, including insect bites, fever and skin conditions.
Adulteration
Citrus oils are often 'folded' - this entails the evaporation of some terpenes with heat under mild vacuum and gives 5,10,20,40 etc folded oils. Other volatile components are lost. Citrus oils are also 'washed' by partitioning the oil into a mixture of alcohol and water and stirring for up to 24 hours. Folding and washing can be jointly used. Other deterpenation methods involve chromatographic separations and countercurrent deterpenations. Thus, a multitude of different oils is possible.
Frequently adulterated with distilled lemon oil, concentrated lemon oil from vacuum distilled lemon oil, terpeneless or sesquiterpeneneless lemon oils: synthetic limonene, citral, dipentene etc. Adulteration is very difficult to detect using conventional gas chromagraph analysis. Citral from lemongrass can be added, also turpentine. As lemon oil is ten times more expensive than orange oil, the latter and its products are often blended in. Antioxidants like BHT and BHA are frequently added to prevent oxidation of the citrus oils and prolong shelf life. Addition of orange terpenes, lemon terpenes & by products (e.g. steam-stripped lemon oil). For lemon oil BP, expressed lime or grapefruit oil is added to poor grades to raise the UV absorbance level sufficiently to pass the BP specifications.
GRAS
Lemon essential oil has GRAS status.
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