science

Kaffir lime

Kaffir lime is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kaffir lime rather than just read about it. In short: Citrus hystrix, called the kaffir lime, Thai lime or makrut lime, (US: , UK: ) is a citrus fruit native to tropical Southeast Asia. Its fruit and leaves are used in Southeast Asian cuisine, and its essential oil is used in perfumery.

Key takeaways

Kaffir lime belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kaffir lime to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kaffir lime from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Citrus hystrix, called the kaffir lime, Thai lime or makrut lime, (US: , UK: ) is a citrus fruit native to tropical Southeast Asia. Its fruit and leaves are used in Southeast Asian cuisine, and its essential oil is used in perfumery. Its rind and crushed leaves emit an intense citrus fragrance.

Names

The most likely etymology of the primary common name for the fruit, the kaffir lime, is through the Kaffirs, an ethnic group in Sri Lanka partly descended from enslaved Bantu. The earliest known reference, under the alternative spelling "caffre", is in the Emanuel Bonavia text The Cultivated Oranges, Lemons Etc. of India and Ceylon (1888), which notes: "The plantation coolies also smear it over their feet and legs, to keep off land leeches; and therefore in Ceylon [Sri Lanka] it has also got the name of Kudalu dchi, or Leech Lime. Europeans call it Caffre Lime." Similarly, the H.F. MacMillan text A Handbook of Tropical Gardening and Planting (1910) referenced: "The 'Kaffir Lime' in Ceylon." Another proposed etymology is directly from Indian Muslims of the imported fruit from the non-Muslim lands to the east to "convey otherness and exotic provenance". Claims that the name of the fruit derives directly from the South African ethnic slur "kaffir" (see "South Africa" below) are not well supported. C. hystrix is known by various names in its native areas:

jêruk purut in Javanese and limau purut in Malay (respectively into Indonesian and Malaysian) both meaning "warty/rough-skinned lime" due to the fruit's bumpy texture. jiàn yè chéng (箭叶橙 "arrow-leaf lime") in Chinese. kabuyaw or kulubot in the Philippines. The city of Cabuyao in Laguna is named after the fruit. Kolumichai, கொலுமிச்சை in Kongu Tamil. makrud or makrut (มะกรูด, /máʔ.krùːt/) in Thailand (a name also used for the bergamot orange). mak khi hut (ໝາກຂີ້ຫູດ, /ma᷆ːk.kʰi᷆ː.hu᷆ːt/) in Laos. chúc or chanh Thái in Vietnam. kroch saech (ក្រូចសើច) in Cambodia combava in Réunion Island. The micrantha, a similar citrus fruit native to the Philippines that is ancestral to several hybrid limes, such as the Key lime and Persian lime, could represent the same species as C. hystrix, but the genomic characterization of the kaffir lime has not been performed in sufficient detail to allow a definitive conclusion.

South Africa In the Dutch Cape Colony (today part of South Africa), the Arabic kafir was adopted by Dutch colonists as "kaffir", an ethnic slur for Bantu peoples. In reaction, some authors have favored "makrut lime", a lesser known but more neutral name. In South Africa, it is usually referred to as "Thai lime".

Description C. hystrix is a thorny shrub or small tree, 2 to 11 metres (6 to 35 ft) tall, with aromatic and distinctively shaped "double" leaves. These hourglass-shaped leaves comprise the leaf blade plus a flattened, leaf-like stalk (botanically, a winged petiole). The fruit is rough and green and ripens to yellow; it is distinguished by its bumpy exterior and small size, approximately 4 cm (2 in) wide. The fruits have thick skins (pericarps) and taste very acidic and slightly bitter. Flowers can have four to five petals that are white in color and are fragrant.

History Pierre Sonnerat (1748–1814) collected specimens of it in 1771–72, and it appears in Lamarck's Encyclopédie Méthodique (1796). Makrut lime appears in texts under the name of kaffir lime in 1868, in Ceylon, where rubbing the juice onto legs and socks prevents leech bites. This could be a possible origin of the name leech lime.

Uses

Culinary C. hystrix leaves are used in Southeast Asian cuisines such as Indonesian, Laotian, Cambodian, and Thai. The leaves are the most frequently used part of the plant, fresh, dried, or frozen. The leaves are widely used in Thai cuisine (for dishes such as tom yum) and Cambodian cuisine (for the base paste "krueng"). The leaves are used in Vietnamese cuisine to add fragrance to chicken dishes and to decrease the pungent odor when steaming snails. Also, in Vietnamese villages that harvest silkworms, the silkworms in the pupa stage are stir-fried with the kaffir lime leaves. The leaves are used in Indonesian cuisine (especially Balinese cuisine and Javanese cuisine) for foods such as soto ayam and are used along with Indonesian bay leaf for chicken and fish. They are also found in Malaysian and Burmese cuisines. The rind (peel) is commonly used in Lao and Thai curry paste, adding an aromatic, astringent flavor. The zest of the fruit, referred to as combava, is used in creole cuisine to impart flavor in infused rums and rougails in Mauritius, Réunion, and Madagascar. In Cambodia, the entire fruit is crystallized or candied for eating.

Medicinal The juice and rinds of the peel are used in traditional medicine in some Asian countries; the fruit's juice is often used in shampoo and is believed to kill head lice.

Other uses The juice is used as a cleanser for clothing and hair in Thailand and occasionally in Cambodia. Lustral water mixed with slices of the fruit is used in religious ceremonies in Cambodia. Makrut lime oil is used as raw material in many fields, including pharmaceutical, agronomic, food, sanitary, cosmetic, and perfume industries. It is also used extensively in aromatherapy and as an essential ingredient in various cosmetic and beauty products.

Cultivation

C. hystrix is grown worldwide in suitable climates as a garden shrub for home fruit production. It is well suited to container gardens and for large garden pots on patios, terraces, and in conservatories.

Main constituents The compound responsible for the characteristic aroma was identified as (–)-(S)-citronellal, which is contained in the leaf oil up to 80 percent; minor components include citronellol (10 percent), nerol and limonene. From a stereochemical point of view, it is remarkable that makrut lime leaves contain only the (S) stereoisomer of citronellal, whereas its enantiomer, (+)-(R)-citronellal is found in both lemon balm and (to a lesser degree) lemon grass, (however, citronellal is only a trace component in the latter's essential oil). Makrut lime fruit peel contains an essential oil comparable to lime fruit peel oil; its main components are limonene and β-pinene.

Toxicity C. hystrix contains significant quantities of furanocoumarins, in both the peel and the pulp. Furanocoumarins are known to cause phytophotodermatitis, a potentially severe skin inflammation. Cases of phytophotodermatitis induced by external use of C. hystrix have been reported.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kaffir lime

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kaffir lime claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kaffir lime before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kaffir lime ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kaffir lime

In research: Kaffir lime appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kaffir lime in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kaffir lime is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Austronesian agriculture, Citrus, Filipino cuisine, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kaffir lime outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kaffir lime in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kaffir lime means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kaffir lime out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kaffir lime in simple terms?

Why does Kaffir lime matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kaffir lime?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kaffir lime.