The Many Uses of Lemon As a Health Supplement

The lemon is a hybrid citrus tree of cultivated origin. This fruit is used to make juice while its pulp and rind are meant for other uses. Citric acid makes up about 5% of lemon juice which has an acidic (sour) taste and a pH of about 2 or 3. Due to the acidity, lemon juice makes a readily available acid for use in high school chemistry laboratory experiments. Lemons thrive in tropical and sub-tropical climates but can not flourish in frost and extremely cold temperatures. They require an abundance of water but should be permitted to dry out between watering.

Lemon juice is normally sprinkled onto fish dishes because its acidity can neutralize the basicity of the amines found in fish thereby converting them an ammonium salt complex. Furthermore, lemon juice is widely used, in conjunction with other ingredients, when marinating meat before cooking. The citric acid can denature, or break down, the cadherin and cadhesin proteins that hold the meat's muscle fibers together. Therefore, use of lemon juice allows the meat to become tender. It is a myth that lemon juice makes a good antibiotic. In reality, lemon juice that is sprinkled on freshly cut fruit such as pears helps to prevent oxidation (or browning of fruit).

Some people choose to eat lemon as a fruit. By doing so, be sure to consume water afterwards to help wash the citric acid and sugar from the teeth. Failure to do so can promote a favorable environment for tooth decay and other diseases of the dentition. One hundred mL of lemon juice contain about 50 mg of vitamin C and 5 g of citric acid. In Ayurvedic medicine, it is believed that a cup of hot water with lemon juice in it can cleanse and purify the liver.