Witnessed by: Ayurveda · Western · Unani
Lemon (Citrus limon), of the Rutaceae family. A small thorny evergreen tree with fragrant white-and-purple flowers; native range: probably a hybrid of southern and Southeast Asia; carried west by Arab traders and spread through the Mediterranean. Globally recognized as jambira · nimbuka in Sanskrit, bara nimbu · jambhiri in Hindi, laimun · limu (ليمون) in Arabic, and acid lemon in English. The part used is the fruit and its juice; the rind and its oil. A bright yellow oval fruit with a fragrant, oil-dotted rind and a pale, intensely sour, aromatic juice.
In this cross-tradition database, we analyze how this substance operates across world medicine systems — tracking its traditional tastes, temperatures, tissue affinities, post-digestive effects, and planetary correspondences across Ayurveda, Unani, and Western herbalism.
LEMON
IDENTITY
Name
- Common
- lemon
- Scientific name
- Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck
- Family
- Rutaceae
Form
- Part used
- the fruit and its juice; the rind and its oil
PROPERTIES
Nature
Taste
how the plant declares itself on the tongue
- Ayurveda
- sour (amla)
- Western
- sour · aromatic
- Unani
- sour · aromatic
Temperature
Ayurveda: heating (ushna — the juice)
Western: cool
Unani: cold (& dry, 1st–2nd degree — the juice)
convergence: a genuine split — Ayurveda reads the sour juice as digestive and warming (ushna), while Galenic Unani and the West rank the cooling, thirst-quenching juice as cold
Affinity
where in the body it travels
Organs / channels
- Western
- stomach · digestion · liver · blood
- Unani
- stomach · liver · heart
PRACTICE
Virtue
Actions
- Ayurveda
- dipana-pachana (kindles and digests), ruchya (appetiser), chhardighna (antiemetic), krimighna and hridya; the juice antiscorbutic
- Western
- refrigerant, antiscorbutic, stomachic, carminative and astringent; diaphoretic in hot infusion
- Unani
- muqawwi-e-meda (stomachic), kaasir-e-riyah (carminative), mufarreh (exhilarant and cardiac), qabid (astringent) and dafay-e-safra (checks bilious vomiting)
Cautions
Contraindications: hyperacidity and peptic ulcer, sensitive teeth, and high pitta in excess
Toxicity: essentially a food; excess sours the stomach and erodes tooth enamel, and the expressed peel oil is photosensitising on the skin
Interactions
- Western
- photosensitising drugs: furocoumarins in the peel oil add to photosensitivity
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