Lime compounds, extraction methods and food uses
What it found
Lime contains many plant compounds that vary by plant part and extraction method.
In lab tests and animal studies, these compounds have shown antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and insecticidal activity.
What they found
Animal and lab studies
Antibacterial activity
Lime extracts have shown antibacterial effects in lab tests, with the ethanolic leaf extract working better than the water extract against Klebsiella and E. coli. The effect depended on concentration.
Antioxidant activity
Lime peel and leaf extracts have shown antioxidant activity in lab tests, linked to flavonoids such as hesperidin, nobiletin and tangeretin. Immature fruits and frozen peels tended to show higher activity than mature or fresh ones.
Anticancer activity
In lab tests, lime compounds such as quercetin, limonoids and essential oil components have shown activity against cancer cells, including breast, pancreatic and lymphoma cell lines. Some studies used computer models rather than living cells.
Anti-inflammatory and other effects
Lime peel essential oil and bark extract have shown anti-inflammatory effects in animal studies, and lime extracts have shown antidiabetic, antiplasmodium and white blood cell boosting effects in animal or lab studies.
Other findings
Compounds vary by part
The mix and amount of plant compounds differ depending on which part of the lime plant is used. Flavonoids were found in all parts, while essential oils came mainly from the leaves and fruit peel.
Extraction method matters
The extraction method, the plant part and the solvent all affect how much of a compound is obtained. For example, ethanol gave the highest total flavonoid content from lime fruit compared with water or methanol.
Protecting compounds in food
Microencapsulation, where compounds are coated in a protective material, can help stop them breaking down during storage and processing. It has been used with lime peel oils and lime juice for food applications such as tea bags.
What the authors conclude
“The review reveals that the composition and quantity of compounds vary depending on the part of C. aurantifolia as well as the extraction method.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say lime has beneficial bioactive ingredients that can be drawn out using various extraction techniques.
- They note that the composition and quantity of compounds vary depending on the plant part and the extraction method.
- They conclude that microencapsulation can be used as an alternative method to solve the problem of bioactive components degrading during storage or food processing.
How it was done
The authors say lime is widely used in food, cosmetics and traditional medicine, and that each part of the plant has its own mix of compounds. They wanted to pull together what is known about these compounds, how they are extracted, and how they can be protected for use in food.
They gathered and compared published studies on lime, covering the compounds found in its leaves, fruit, peel, seeds, roots, stems and bark, the methods used to extract them, and the biological activities reported for each. They also looked at microencapsulation, a way of coating ingredients to protect them during storage and processing.
What it can’t tell you
- Most of the biological activities described come from lab tests or animal studies, so they cannot show what happens in people.
- The review does not report how much lime a person would need to eat to get these effects, or whether the compounds reach the right places in the body.
- It does not compare lime against other treatments or show whether eating lime affects health outcomes in real life.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by Padjadjaran University (from the PubMed record).
- Conflicts
- The authors reported no potential conflict of interest.
- Authors work at
- Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia
The paper
- Title
- Bioactive Components and Their Activities from Different Parts of Citrus aurantifolia (Christm.) Swingle for Food Development
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Animals and lab studies
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Indriyani NN, Anshori JA, Permadi N, Nurjanah S, Julaeha E (2023). Bioactive Components and Their Activities from Different Parts of Citrus aurantifolia (Christm.) Swingle for Food Development. Foods (Basel, Switzerland). doi:10.3390/foods12102036Free full textPubMed 37238855DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error