Parts Used
Juice, oil, peel

Properties
Antiseptic, antibacterial, antioxidant, antifungal, vermifugal

Common Uses
Lemonade is a commonly used to fight off colds and flu. Lemon juice in warm water may be used as a gargle to relieve a sore throat.

Locating and Handling
Purchase lemons or juice at a grocery. Lemon oil may be found in health food stores.

Caution
None

Origin
Native to Asia

Early Herbal Notes "The lemon tree, like the orange, is common in our greenhouses; and, according to the Hortus Kewensis, was first cultivated in Britain in the Oxford garden, previous to the year 1648. MEDICAL VIRTUE -- Lemon juice is a powerful and agreeable antiseptic. Its powers are much increased, according to Dr. Wright, by saturating it with muriate of soda. This mixture he recommends as possessing very great efficacy in dysentery, remittent fever, the bellyach, putrid sore throat, and as being perfectly specific in diabetes and lientery. Citric acid is often used with great success for allaying vomiting: with this intention it is mixed with carbonate of potass, from which it expels the carbonic acid with effervescence. This mixture should be drunk as soon as it is made; or the carbonic acid gas, on which actually the antiemetic power of this mixture depends, may be extricated in the stomach itself, by first swallowing the carbonate of potass dissolved in water, and drinking immediately afterwards the citric acid properly sweetened. The doses are about a scruple of the carbonate dissolved in eight or ten drachms of water, and an ounce of lemon juice, or an equivalent quantity of citric acid."