Citrus hystrix, called the kaffir lime, Thai lime
Its fruit and leaves are used in Southeast Asian cuisine, and its Petitgrain is used in perfumery.
Names
The most likely
etymology is through the Kaffirs, an ethnic group in
Sri Lanka partly descended from enslaved
Bantu peoples.
The earliest known reference, under the alternative spelling "caffre" is in the 1888 book
The Cultivated Oranges, Lemons Etc. of India and Ceylon by
Emanuel Bonavia, who notes, "The plantation
also smear it over their feet and legs, to keep off land
; and therefore in Ceylon Sri it has also got the name of
Kudalu dchi, or Leech Lime. Europeans call it Caffre Lime."
Similarly, H.F. MacMillan's 1910 book
A Handbook of Tropical Gardening and Planting notes, "The 'Kaffir Lime' in Ceylon."
Another proposed etymology is directly by Indian Muslims of the imported fruit from the non-Muslim lands to the east to "convey otherness and exotic provenance."
C. hystrix is known by various names in its native areas:
-
jêruk purut in Javanese and limau purut in Malay language (respectively into Indonesian and Malaysian) both meaning "warty/rough-skinned lime" due to the fruit's bumpy texture.
-
(箭叶橙 "arrow-leaf lime") in Chinese language.
-
kabuyaw or kulubot in the Philippines.
-
Kolumichai, கொலுமிச்சை in Kongu Tamil
-
or (มะกรูด]], ) in Thailand (a name also used for the bergamot orange).
-
(ໝາກຂີ້ຫູດ, ) in Laos.
-
chúc or chanh Thái in Vietnam.
-
combava in Réunion Island
The Citrus micrantha, a similar citrus fruit native to the Philippines that is ancestral to several hybrid limes, such as the Key lime and Persian lime, may represent the same species as C. hystrix, but the genomic characterization of the kaffir lime has not been performed in sufficient detail to allow a definitive conclusion.
South Africa
In South Africa, the Arabic
kafir was adopted by White colonialists as "kaffir",
an ethnic slur for Black Africans.
Consequently, some authors favour "makrut lime", a less known name. In South Africa, it is usually referred to as "Thai lime".
[ Common lime name has racist history by Khalil Akhtar, CBC News, Jul 8, 2014]
Description
C. hystrix is a thorny shrub or small tree, tall, with aromatic and
leaf shape.
These hourglass-shaped leaves comprise the leaf blade plus a flattened, leaf-like stalk (botanically, a winged petiole). The fruit is rough and green and ripens to yellow; it is distinguished by its bumpy exterior and small size, approximately wide.
The fruits have thick skins (pericarps) and taste very acidic and slightly bitter.
Flowers can have four to five petals that are white in color and are fragrant.
History
Pierre Sonnerat (1748–1814) collected specimens of it in 1771–72, and it appears in Lamarck's Encyclopédie Méthodique (1796).
Makrut lime appears in texts under the name of kaffir lime in 1868, in Ceylon, where rubbing the juice onto legs and socks prevents leech bites.
Uses
Culinary
C. hystrix leaves are used in Southeast Asian cuisines such as Indonesian,
Laotian cuisine, Cambodian, and
Thai cuisine. The leaves are the most frequently used part of the plant, fresh, dried, or frozen. The leaves are widely used in
Thai cuisine (for dishes such as
tom yum) and Cambodian cuisine (for the base paste "
Kroeung").
The leaves are used in Vietnamese cuisine to add fragrance to chicken dishes and to decrease the pungent odor when steaming snails. Also, in Vietnamese villages that harvest
silkworms, the silkworms in the
pupa stage are
stir-fried with the kaffir lime leaves.
The leaves are used in Indonesian cuisine (especially
Balinese cuisine and
Javanese cuisine) for foods such as
soto ayam and are used along with Indonesian bay leaf for chicken and fish. They are also found in Malaysian and Burmese cuisines.
The rind (peel) is commonly used in Lao and Thai curry paste, adding an aromatic, astringent flavor.[Dy Phon Pauline, 2000, Plants Used In Cambodia, printed by Imprimerie Olympic, Phnom Penh]
Medicinal
The juice and rinds of the peel are used in traditional medicine in some Asian countries; the fruit's juice is often used in shampoo and is believed to kill head lice.
Other uses
The juice is used as a cleanser for clothing and hair in Thailand
and occasionally in Cambodia.
Lustral water mixed with slices of the fruit is used in religious ceremonies in Cambodia.
Makrut lime oil is used as raw material in many fields, including pharmaceutical, agronomic, food, sanitary, cosmetic, and perfume industries. It is also used extensively in aromatherapy and as an essential ingredient in various cosmetic and beauty products.
fish stuffed with
C. hystrix and
Cymbopogon in preparation for steaming]]
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]]
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, Cambodia (August 2022)]]
Cultivation
C. hystrix is grown worldwide in suitable climates as a garden shrub for home fruit production. It is well suited to
and for large
flower pot on
, terraces, and in conservatories.
Main constituents
The compound responsible for the characteristic aroma was identified as
citronellal, which is contained in the leaf oil up to 80 percent; minor components include
citronellol (10 percent),
nerol and
limonene.
From a stereochemical point of view, it is remarkable that makrut lime leaves contain only the ( S) stereoisomer of citronellal, whereas its enantiomer, (+)-( R)-citronellal is found in both lemon balm and (to a lesser degree) lemon grass, (however, citronellal is only a trace component in the latter's essential oil).
Makrut lime fruit peel contains an essential oil comparable to lime fruit peel oil; its main components are limonene and pinene.
Toxicity
C. hystrix contains significant quantities of furanocoumarins, in both the peel and the pulp.
See also
