History of citrus fruit

Citrus fruits, like oranges, have been cultivated for the last 4,000 years in southern China and the tropical regions of Asia, especially the Malay Archipelago.

Citrus medica (citron) was the first citrus to spread west, apparently through Persia and the Southern Levant some-time between 400 and 600 B.C. and then to the western Mediterranean. Arab traders transported oranges to eastern Africa and the Middle East sometime between 100 and 700 A.D.

The earliest lemon (C. limon) botanical remains were found in the Forum Romanum (Rome) and are dated to the late first century BC/early first century AD.

The Roman conquests, the development of Arab trade routes, and the expansion of Islam contributed significantly to this dispersal. During the Arab occupation of Spain, citrus fruits first arrived in southern Europe. Sweet orange (C. sinesis) was introduced during the second half of the 15th century AD, probably via the trade route established by the Genoese, and later (16th century AD) by the Portuguese.

By the time Christopher Columbus sailed, orange trees were common in the Canary Islands. Early Spanish explorers (Ponce de Leon) planted the first orange trees near St. Augustine, Florida in the 1500s. Commercial production began nearly 300 years later – after the Civil War – when the development of the railroad allowed citrus growers to ship their products across the country.

By the 1800s, citrus fruits achieved worldwide distribution. In the 1890s, the demand for them greatly increased because physicians discovered that drinking the juice of oranges or other citrus fruits could prevent scurvy, a vitamin deficiency disease.
History of citrus fruit

Lemon uses in history

Lemon have been known, used and traded since approximately 600 BC when Arab traders brought them to Asia.

The Athenians received lemon from the Persians, who ere neighbors of the Medes and from Attica its spread all over Greece.

Lemons were only known to the Romans at a very late period and at first were used only in cupboards and drawers to protect wool from moths.

There was also a belief that boiling a whole lemon in Attic honey until the lemon completely dissolved made syrup that both Greeks and Romans believed to be a protections against every poison, if taken medicinally in the morning.

The first widespread use of lemons was in possets, hot spicy drinks which developed from the fifteenth century onwards. From the sixteenth century they usually contained lemon or orange juice mixed with sugar, cream and spices.

The lemon has been prized for its numerous medical uses, many of which are still used today. One such example is the use of lemons by the British Navy in the 1800s to fight the effects of scurvy.
Lemon uses in history

History of Lemon

The lemon, Citrus limon, owes its name entirely to the botanies, for its was unknown to classical writers.

The origin of lemon, has been a mystery, although there exists some indication that is a native of southeastern China, and it was cultivated before the Sung dynasty.

There was a suggestion that lemon originated in the foothills of Kashmir and reached the province of Kuan-tong by 1900 BC.

Apparently the lemon was introduced to Persia and Palestine at the beginning of the twelfth century A.D as it was then commonly grown in those countries and is described in many Arabia works of that period.

From the tenth century AD onwards the Arabs, took it all around the Mediterranean basin, eastwards to Greece by way of Constantinople, westwards to Spain by way of the Maghreb and Fezzan.

The transmigration to Europe belongs to the invasion of the West by those mighty caliphs, who from the heart of Southern Asia, extended their conquests to the foot of Pyrenees, leaving everywhere traces of their power and of their knowledge.

The lemon, thus transported by the Arabs into every part of their vast empire where it would grow, was found by the Crusaders in Syria and Palestine towards the end of the eleventh century.

The lemon was brought to northern Africa, Spain and Sicily, probably by the Crusaders, who followed the activities of the Arabs in spreading citrus culture.

The crusaders conquered Granada in 1492 and reunited the whole Spain. It seems likely that a range of lemon trees was already growing there and that the now colonist would have continued to cultivate as the Moors had done previously.

Once Spain and Portugal colonized most of the New World and they then introduced lemon to the Americas.
History of Lemon