Lemon The Yellow Fruit,,,,,,,,,,,,

The lemon is a small evergreen tree native to Asia. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world, primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind (zest) are also used in cooking and baking. The juice of the lemon is about 5% to 6% citric acid, which gives lemons a sour taste. The distinctive sour taste of lemon juice makes it a key ingredient in drinks and foods such as lemonade.

The origin of the lemon is unknown, though it is thought that lemons first grew inAssam (a region in Northeast India), northern Burma, and China.^[1][2] A study of the genetic origin of the lemon reported that it is a hybrid between sour orange andcitron.^[3]

Lemons were known to the Jews of Jerusalem, who, according to Josephus, pelted an errant high priest with them during a festival in the 90s BC,^[4] although Jewish tradition maintains that this was done with citrons, not lemons.^[5] They enteredEurope near southern Italy no later than the 1st century AD, during the time ofAncient Rome. However, they were not widely cultivated. They were later introduced to Persia and then to Iraq and Egypt around 700 AD. The lemon was first recorded in literature in a 10th-century Arabic treatise on farming, and was also used as an ornamental plant in early Islamic gardens.^[1][2] It was distributed widely throughout the Arab world and the Mediterranean region between 1000 and 1150.

The first substantial cultivation of lemons in Europe began in Genoa in the middle of the 15th century.^[2] The lemon was later introduced to the Americas in 1493 when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola on his voyages. Spanish conquest throughout the New World helped spread lemon seeds. It was mainly used as an ornamental plant and for medicine.^[2] In the 19th century, lemons were increasingly planted in Florida and California.^[6]

In 1747, James Lind's experiments on seamen suffering from scurvy involved adding lemon juice to their diets, thoughvitamin C was not yet known.^[7][8]

The origin of the word lemon may be Middle Eastern. One of the earliest occurrences of "lemon" appears in a Middle English customs document of 1420–1421. The word draws from the Old French limon, thence the Italian limone, from the Arabiclaymūn or līmūn ليمون, and from the Persian līmūn لیمو, a generic term for citrus fruit, which is a cognate of Sanskrit निम्ब (nimbū, “lime”).