Citrus Fruit Research Paper

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Citrus is the largest genus in the family Rutaceae and is the most traded horticultural product in the World. Categories: sweet oranges (most are C. sinensis but also includes blood and acidless oranges), mandarins (such as Satsuma (C. unshi), tangerines (C. tangerina, and reticulata), and clementines (C. clementine)), sour/bitter oranges (such as Seville, C. aurantium), lemons (C. limon), limes (C. aurantifolia and latifolia), grapefruit (C. paradisi) and pummelos (C. grandis), hybrids (e.g., tangelos, tangors, and limequats), and citrons (C. medica) (Turner and Burri, 2013). The exact origin of citrus fruits is not clearly identified, although most researchers place its origin to be South East Asia (Okwu, 2008). Citrus fruits are cultivated…show more content…
Citrus species are consumed mainly as fresh or raw materials for juices or are canned as segments. Additionally, Citrus fruits can also be used in the food, beverage, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries (Lv et al., 2015). Numerous therapeutic properties have been attributed to citrus fruits, like anticancer, antiviral, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory activities, and effects on capillary fragility as well as an ability to inhabit platelet aggregation.These numerous health benefits of citrus fruits are linked to the high amounts of photochemical and bioactive compounds such as flavonoids, carotenoids, vitamins and minerals available in citrus fruits (Okwu, 2008). Although flavonoids glycosides can had a wide range of biological activities, the protective role of flavonoids in living systems was mostly due to their antioxidant potential, which is related to transfer of reactive oxygen species (ROS), chelation of metal catalysts, activation of antioxidants enzymes and inhibition of certain type of oxidases and colon cancer (Zarina and Tan, 2013). Antioxidants are secondary metabolites found naturally in plants such as citrus…show more content…
They belong to the class of synthetic antioxidants. The main disadvantage with the synthetic antioxidants is the side effects when taken in vivo. Strict governmental rules regarding the safety of the food has necessitated the search for alternatives as food preservatives. Plants are the potential source of natural antioxidants (Zarina and Tan, 2013). The citrus flavonoids have the ability to capture electrons, block and/or scavenge the radicals. The citrus flavonoids form a tautomeric dislocation, which prevents the propagating chain reactions of these oxygen free radicals. The different radicals responsible for the cell oxidation process are the following: singlet oxygen (O2); superoxide anion (O2), hydroxyl radical (OH•) and peroxyl radical R-O-O• (Okwu, 2008). These citrus fruit residues, which are generally discarded as waste in the environment, can act as potential nutraceutical resources. The utilization of these bioactive rich citrus residues can provide an efficient, inexpensive, and environment friendly platform for the production of novel nutraceuticals or for the improvement of older ones (Rafiq et al.,

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