Survey of Phenolic Compounds Produced in Citrus
Flavonoid Composition of Citrus

Lime (Citrus aurantifolia), with possible citron, Microcitrus, and pummelo ancestors (Barrett and Rhodes 1976), contains only rutinosyl flavanones, predominantly hesperidin and either eriocitrin or narirutin. Microcitrus and citron, two of the potential parents of lime, also have the rutinosyl flavanone pattern. A number of papers have shown that lime can be classified as containing rutinosyl flavanones with high levels of hesperidin (Nishiura et al. 1971b, Horowitz and Gentili 1977, Kamiya et al. 1979, Anis and Aminuddin 1981). Albach and Redman (1969) reported that lime was unique among citrus taxa because it contains only hesperidin.

Our results confirm that the hesperidin is the major flavanone; but consistent low levels of eriocitrin were also found in nearly all cultivars tested, as has been the case in lime juice (Coffin 1971). None of the surveyed lime cultivars contain either of the isosakuranetin glycosides nor naringin–6"–malonate, possibly for reasons as discussed for C. medica.

Many lime samples contain appreciable amounts of the rutinosyl flavone rutin. Quercetin (presumably from deglycosylated rutin) had been isolated previously from 'Kagzi' lime (Mizelle et al. 1967). The leaf of 'Bishop Red' lime is the only sample in which isorhoifolin was detected. 'Bishop Red' lime and 'Otaheite Red Acidless' lime (both also called "Rangpur lime") are the only two lime cultivars in which any naringin is detectable, indicating the presence of some of the pummelo genome.

previous page

next page

United States Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Service

The material on this page is in the public domain.

Original posting: April 1, 1999.