Lime Oil

#### Lime Oil. Commercially, we may define two types of **Lime**** ****Oil**: - Expressed lime oil, which can be prepared in the same way that lemon oil, orange oil, etc. are prepared from their fruits (by hand or by machine). - Distilled lime oil, which was the by-product (now often the main product) of the juice industry, similar to distilled sweet orange oil, but not obtained in quite the same way. There are two main types of lime and several sub-varieties, but only one lime has any importance in lime oil industry: the so-called *sour lime, *also known as **Mexican Lime **or **West**** ****Indian**** ****Lime**, obtained from the small tree now called **Citrus**** ****Aurantifolia,**** ****Type**** **(earlier known as **Citrus**** ****Medica**, var. acida). The sweeter type of lime, another variety of **Citrus**** ****Aurantifolia**, is used only rarely for the production of essential oil. Yet another variety of the lime tree, **Citrus Limetta**, grows in Italy, and small lots of oil from the peel of its fruit occasionally enter the European market under the name of **Limette Oil**. The origin of the lime tree is not definitely known, but it is believed that the tree came from the Far East, probably from the East Indian archipelago where it is found on almost all the islands to South America's Pacific coast and the jungles inland. The tree was also brought in the opposite direction to East Africa, Arabia, Iran (hence the name "Persian lime"), Egypt and southern Europe. It is most likely, that the West Indian and Florida limes are descendants of lime seeds brought to the West Indies shortly after the discovery of America. The lime trees now grow abundantly in all these tropical and semi-tropical regions, wild, semi-wild and in a cultivated stage. **Lime**** ****Oils**** **are produced from unripe (green) fruits together with variable amounts of semi- ripe or fully ripe (yellow) limes (distilled lime oil), or exclusively from green limes (expressed lime oil). See the individual monographs on: **Lime**** ****Oil,**** ****distilled,** **Lime**** ****Oil,**** ****expressed**** **and **Lime**** ****Oil,**** ****terpeneless**** ****and**** ****sesquiterpeneless**.