Citrus medica L.

ഗണപതി നാരകം

Family : RUTACEAE

Synonym :

Citrus aurantium L. var. medica Wight & Arn.

Common Names : Ganapathi-naragam, Gilam, Kottanaranga, Madulungam, Wild Lemon, Citron

Flowering Period : March-October

Distribution : Probably indigenous in India

Habitat : Cultivated

Uses : The fruits are made into marmalade, eaten in salads or are used in liqueurs. The thick rind of the fruit can be sliced and added to salads, or candied and used as a flavouring in cakes, puddings, confectionery etc. It is a commercial source of candied peel, used in cakes etc. The thick peel is candied, after having been cleaned by fermentation in sea water. The fruit of some improved forms can be used to extract the juice for making beverages and desserts.The fresh shoots, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds of citron have all entered into a number of traditional medicinal preparations for the treatment of asthma, arthritis, headache, stomach-ache, intestinal parasites. The fruits are used in the treatment of malaria, coughs and colds. Citron fruit has been used since Roman times as a perfume and moth repellent, and to flavour foods.

Key Characters :

Shrubs or small trees; branchlets angled, glabrous; spines axillary, stout, sharp, ca 3.5 cm long. Leaves alternate, simple, variable, obtuse at base, crenate at margin, acute at apex, 10-18 x 3-9 cm, glabrous; petioles 8-10 mm long, not winged or jointed above. Inflorescences axillary racemes, few-flowered. Flowers bisexual and male. Calyx urceolate, 4-lobed; lobes ca 3.5 mm long. Petals 4, oblong, 2-4 x ca 1 cm, purplish. Stamens 35-40; filaments polyadelphous, short-pubescent, white; anthers linear, 4.5-5 mm long, yellowish. Ovary cylindric, ca 8 x 4 mm, 12-loculed; style cylindric, 10-15 mm long, purplish; stigma globose, sticky. Fruits ovoid-oblong, 10-20 x 6-14 cm, yellowish; seeds numerous, ca 10 x 5 mm, smooth.