This document describes Bijapooraka, the fruit of Citrus medica, a small evergreen tree cultivated in warm, moist regions of India. Key details include:
- The fruit is oblong or oval, with a thick, bumpy yellow peel enclosing pale yellow segments with many seeds.
- It has both sweet and sour varieties. The sweet variety helps treat acid indigestion and heart conditions, while the sour variety helps treat Kapha and Vata imbalances.
- All parts have medicinal uses like treating dysentery, sedation, rheumatism, and as an antidote for poison. The fruit and seeds specifically treat amenorrhea.
2. Bijapooraka consists of fresh fruit of
Citrus medica Linn. (Fam. Rutaceae); an
evergreen shrub or small tree, about 3.6
m high with short, thick and thorny
branches, cultivated sparsely throughout
the warm-moist regions of the country.
7. Habitat:-
common in regions of Gadwal to Sikkim grows
at about 4000 fts from sea level, western
ghats, Assam, now it is almost found in India
8. Morphology:-
Citron is a slow-growing shrub or small tree reaching up
to 15 ft (4.5 m) in height with stiff branches and twigs
and spines in the leaf axils.
The evergreen leaflets are leathery, lemon-scented,
ovate-lanceolate or ovate elliptic.
The flower buds are large and white or purplish. The
fragrant flowers have 4 to 5 petals and they are pinkish
or purplish with 30 to 60 stamens.
9. • The fruit is fragrant, oblong or oval and very
variable even on the same branch.
•The peel is yellow, usually rough and bumpy and
very thick.
•The pulp is pale-yellow or greenish divided into
as many as 14 or 15 segments, firm, not very
juicy, acid or sweet and contains numerous
seeds.
17. Citron juice with wine was considered an effective purgative to
clean the system of poison.
In India, the peel is a remedy for dysentery. The distilled juice is
given as a sedative.
The candied peel is sold in China as a stimulant, expectorant
and tonic.
In West Tropical Africa, the citron is used only as a medicine,
against rheumatism.
In Malaya, a decoction of the fruit is taken to drive off evil
spirits.
In Panama, they are ground up and combined with other
ingredients and given as an antidote for poison.
The essential oil of the peel is regarded as an antibiotic.