Lime Juice Could Save Thousands of Lives Each Year

While billions of dollars are poured into research and development for pharmaceutical drugs, the humble lime has been proven to mitigate and even cure diseases that cause millions to suffer and hundreds of thousands to die each year worldwide.

The lime is best known for its role in key lime pie and margaritas, but did you know it possesses remarkable healing properties as well?

An impressive array of research on lime juice from the National Library of Medicine indicates that it could either cure or greatly accelerate healing time from a variety of life-threatening illnesses, including:

Sickle cell anemia (SCA): According to the CDC, SCA afflicts about 95,000 Americans and is diagnosed in 1 in every 500,000 African American births.

A hereditary blood disorder, SCA is characterized by an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin molecule in red blood cells. A clinical trial looking at SCA in children found lime juice to reduce painful episodes (only 50 percent for people in lime juice intervention versus 92.7 percent for people in the control group), febrile illness (46.6 percent lime juice intervention versus 87.3 percent control), and hospital admission rate (3.4 percent lime juice intervention versus 34.5 percent control) for sickle cell anemia in children.

Malaria: Malaria is a mosquito-borne parasitic disease. The World Health Organization estimates that malaria causes 219 million cases of illness resulting in 660,000 deaths each year. A wide range of highly toxic drugs are used to treat the disease, but a study found that lime juice greatly increased malarial clearance when combined with standard drug therapy.[1] The researchers concluded: “Lime juice when used with the appropriate antimalarial may enhance malaria parasite clearance especially in those with uncomplicated malaria.”

Bacterial agents in food: A study found that potential pathogens in the popular seafood dish known as ceviche could be completely sanitized with the lime juice used in a common recipe. Ceviche uses raw fish or fish cured in citrus fruit, and this fish can contain Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Salmonella enterica bacteria. Both were reduced to below detection limits through the addition of lime extract.[2]

Water disinfection: Lime has been found to enhance the disinfection of water, by killing both norovirus as well as Escherichia coli, or E. coli.[3] Lime has also been found to kill the cholera pathogen, which is believed to affect 3 million to 5 million people and cause 100,000 to 130,000 deaths annually, as of 2010.[4]

Pancreatic cancer treatment: Pancreatic cancer is a notoriously difficult to treat type of cancer. Lime juice was found to induce programmed cell death in pancreatic cancer cells.[5]

Smoking cessation: Smoking is likely the most preventable cause of death on this planet. A clinical trial comparing nicotine gum to lime juice extract found that “fresh lime can be used effectively as a smoking cessation aid.”[6]

References

[1] S A Adegoke, O A Oyelami, O S Olatunya, L A Adeyemi. Effects of lime juice on malaria parasite clearance. Phytother Res. 2011 Oct ;25(10):1547–50. Epub 2011 Mar 17. PMID:21413089

[2] Prateek Mathurand, Donald W Schaffner. Effect of lime juice on Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Salmonella enterica inactivation during the preparation of the raw fish dish ceviche. J Food Prot. 2013 Jun ;76(6):1027–30. PMID: 23726199

[3] Prateek Mathurand, Donald W Schaffner. Effect of lime juice on Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Salmonella enterica inactivation during the preparation of the raw fish dish ceviche. J Food Prot. 2013 Jun ;76(6):1027–30. PMID: 23726199

[4] A Rodrigues, A Sandström, T Cá, H Steinsland, H Jensen, P Aaby. Protection from cholera by adding lime juice to food – results from community and laboratory studies in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. Trop Med Int Health. 2000 Jun;5(6):418–22. PMID: 10929141

[5] Jaiprakash R Patil, K N Chidambara Murthy, G K Jayaprakasha, Mahadev B Chetti, Bhimanagouda S Patil. Bioactive compounds from Mexican lime ( Citrus aurantifolia ) juice induce apoptosis in human pancreatic cells. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2005 Feb 15;21(4):435–44.PMID: 19919125

[6] Suthat Rungruanghiranya, Chatchai Ekpanyaskul, Chanin Sakulisariyaporn, Prapada Watcharanat, Kunyanit Akkalakulawas. Efficacy of fresh lime for smoking cessation. J Med Assoc Thai.2012 Dec ;95 Suppl 12:S76–82. PMID: 23513469

Originally published: Nov. 29, 2014

Article updated: Aug. 1, 2019