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The History of Citrus






Different hypotheses have been formulated on the history and geographical origin of citrus. It would appear that all the species belonging to Citrus and its related genera originated in the tropical and subtropical regions of South-east Asia – north-eastern


 

India, southern China, the Indo-Chinese peninsula – and the Malay Archipelago, and then spread to other continents (Webber, 1967; Chapot, 1975) (Fig. 3.1). Tolkowsky (1938) considers that the moun- tainous regions of southern China and north-east India are the centre of origin, ‘where sheltered valleys and southern


 

 

Fig. 3.1. Supposed origin and dispersal routes of citrus fruits (Chapot, 1975). B, bigarade (C. aurantium); C, citron (C. medica); G, grapefruit (C. paradisi); K, kumquat (Fortunella margarita); L, lemon (C. limon); Li, lime (C. aurantifolia); M, mandarin (C. reticulata); O, orange (C. sinensis); S, shaddock (C. grandis); W, ‘Washington’ navel; –––, BC; — —, AD 1–700; – – –, AD 700–1492 (711: Arab occupation of Spain); - - -, AD 1493–1700 (1493: second journey of Christopher Columbus);......, after AD 1700 (fi rst appearance of grapefruit). Centuries are given in Roman numerals (a minus sign indicates BC); years are given in arabic numerals. Source: Davies and Albrigo (1994).

 

© CAB International 2007. Citrus Genetics, Breeding and Biotechnology (ed. I.A. Khan) 19


slopes are suffi ciently protected from the cold dry winds …’ while, according to Tanaka (1954), the citrus may have origi- nated in north-eastern India and Burma; China should be considered only a second- ary centre of distribution. He also maintains that it is likely that several species started in China and spread into Indo-China, Malaysia, north-eastern Asia and fi nally Japan. Tanaka (1954) proposed a theoretical dividing line running from the north-west- ern border of India, above Burma, to the Yunnan province of China, to south of the island of Hainan (Fig. 3.2). Several citrus species such as the citron, the lemon, the lime, the pummelo and the sour and sweet orange originated south of this line, while mandarins and others originated north of the line. The wide diversity of citrus in Yunnan has been described by Gmitter and Hu (1990), who considered this province, through which the Tanaka line runs, to be the major centre of origin for citrus.


Calabrese (1998) indicated that the pri- mordial genetic nucleus of citrus originated in China and the citrus slowly passed from its original location to other oriental regions and from there followed the paths of civi- lization. It is well known that the Chinese reached cultural goals before other people, and they have domesticated many fruit- bearing plants, including citrus, for produc- tion purposes and for aesthetic reasons since the second millennium BC.

The fi rst indication regarding the pres- ence of citrus in China is contained in the book ‘Tribute of Yu’: during the kingdom of Ta Yu (from 2205 to 2197 BC) Citrus names occur in the list of duty tribute sent to the imperial court at An-Yang, a territory near the big bend in the Yellow River. The term Chu found in this document probably refers to small sized mandarins and the kumquat (Fortunella), while the term Yu indicates the pummelo (Citrus grandis) and the ‘Yuzu’ (Citrus junos).


 

 

 

Fig. 3.2. Geographical map showing Tanaka’s dividing line.


 


During the Chou dynasty (1027–256 BC), literature fl ourished and a lot of poems and books were written in this period. Among them, ‘The fi ve Canons’ are the most important mythological, historical, philosophical and literary document of China for a period of about a millennium. In all this literature it is easy to fi nd evidence regarding citrus; there are two types of citrus, the Chu and the Yu, which are men- tioned most often.

The Ch’in and the Han dynasties fol- lowed the Chou, and during the Han dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) other citrus fruits were mentioned, Cheng, Lu Chu and Huang Kan. The most important information comes from Ssu Hsiang-ju (died in 118 BC), who wrote in his prose poem about Cheng (sour orange), Lu Chu (kumquat) and Huang Kan (yellow mandarin, probably including large mandarin-type fruits and oranges). After the Han dynasty, there was the ‘Three Kingdoms’ dynasty which came to an end in 265 AD. From 265 until 420 AD, China


 

 

(c)


 

 

(b)


(a)


was governed by Chin (Tsin) and there are numerous historical records referring to the citrus in this period. In a work written in 304 AD by Chi Han, the fi rst description of citron appears with the name Kuo Han. In Chinese culture, the citron, mainly the ‘Fingered citron’ (Fig. 3.3) also called ‘The hand of Buddha’, had become important; it was considered to be a lucky talisman and was exchanged for good luck. Citron is most probably native to India, and there the ear- liest references are to be found in the Vajasaneyi Samhita, a collection of sacred Brahma texts, called Yajur-Veda, written around the 8th century BC (about a millen- nium before the fi rst description in China); Jambila or Jambira is the term which indi- cates the citron and the lemon (Tolkowsky, 1938).

 

 

The citron

The citron (C. medica L.) is probably native to India; it is well accepted by all authori- ties that it was the fi rst citrus fruit known to Europeans, but there are different opinions


Fig. 3.3, a, b, c. Pictures showing different fi ngered

citrons

 

 

about the exact period and the steps by which it was fi rst brought from its native land. Gallesio (1811) accepts that the Jews brought the citron to Palestine upon their return from their Babilonian exile (~500 BC), while Tolkowsky assumes that the citron was introduced only following the return of Alexander the Great from India (~300 BC). According to Tolkowsky, the adoption of the citron by the Jews for wor- ship during the feast of the Tabernacles (Sukkoth) took place only during the period of the Hasmonaite dynasty (~120 BC). The citron played a prominent part in Jewish religious rituals (Figs 3.4 a and b); it appeared on Jewish coins during 66–70 AD, and has been a favourite motif in Jewish art since then (Spiegel-Roy and Goldschmidt, 1996). The use of the citron during the rites of the Tabernacles at the beginning of the fi rst millennium is also clearly evident from what Joseph Flavius, the most important writer of the Jewish tradition, writes in his Judean Antiquity, a volume which goes


 

 

 

Fig. 3.4a. A citron tree in a mosaic fl oor in Cesarea (Israel’s coastal plain) from the 6th century.

 

 


through the steps of Jewish history from the Creation until the war against Rome.

There is an accurate description of the citron by Theophrastus in his Historia Plantarum, written around 313 BC. He says that there is a plant in Persia which pro- duces a fruit called the ‘Fruit of Persia’ or ‘Fruit of Media’ or Persian citron or Median Apple (Book IV, Chapter IV). He describes the plant with thorns, similar to the pear but thinner, sharper and harder; the fruit is


not edible. However, the fruit as well as the leaves are highly perfumed and are used to protect laundry from moths. Theophrastus goes on to say that the citron produces fruit continually and, while some fall off during maturation, others grow to maturity; the fruits come from specially formed fl owers with a style, while the other fl owers which are not formed in this way fall off and do not produce fruit. Anyway, there is ample evidence that the Greeks were familiar with


 

 

 

Fig. 3.4b. Two citron fruit on the sides of the ‘Menorah’ (the holy lamp of the temple) in the mosaic of synagogue at Nirim, southern coastal plain, Israel.

 


 

citron tree culture in that period; in fact, Theophrastus, who never left Greece, gave an excellent morphological description of the citron tree, describing how to produce and utilize its fruit (Fersini et al., 1973). On the contrary, Virgil (70–19 BC), the fi rst of the Latin writers, in his Georgiche (Book II-

146) only briefl y describes the citron, again using the name Median apple. He writes: ‘in Media the apples of happiness (Felix malum) grow, whose juice has a persist- ently wretched taste, but is an excellent remedy against poisons’.


 

In the fi rst century AD, the citron was known in Rome where the cultured Pliny (24–79 AD) in his Historia Naturalis gave the citron several names, e.g. Malus medica and Malus assyria, and also changed the Greek name Kedros into the Latin Citrus. Like Virgil, Pliny says that the citron, brought from Persia to Rome, was used as an antidote to poisons. There are other ref- erences to the citron written at the same time as Pliny and afterwards.

Certainly the most accurate technical description regarding the citron plant and


 


 

its cultivation comes from Palladius, an agronomist who lived in the 3rd or 4th cen- tury AD. In his Agriculturae Opus, he dedi- cates a chapter to the citron, De citreo, where all the methods of propagation are well described, and he affi rms that the citron needs enormous work and care in pruning.

Moreover, further proof of the knowl- edge that the Romans possessed about the citron comes from many sculptures, pictures and mosaics found in different places. Tolkowsky identifi ed quinces and citrons on a tomb fragment of a 2nd century AD villa in Rome; moreover, he recognized leaves, fl ow- ers and citron fruits on the remains of a pic- torial mural of Pompeii kept in the museum in Naples (Italy) and also on a mosaic belonging to a Roman Villa in Carthage. A mosaic in which the citrons are perfectly rec- ognizable is in the Villa del Casale (probably built in the 2nd or 4th century AD) situated near Piazza Armerina (Sicily).

 

 

The lemon

The exact area of the origin of the lemon (C. limon (L.) Burm. f.) is still uncertain. It must have originated somewhere in south- eastern Asia.

Tolkowsky and others suggest that the lemon is native to India: Jambila or Jambira is the term which indicates the citron and the lemon; both are part of the historical culture in certain Indian regions, and vari- ous forms of lemons grow wild (namely in the southern part of Himalaya and in Assam) and, because of this, many taxono- mists believe India to be the exact location where the citron and lemon originated. It is possible that a population of citrus trees with characteristics similar to both the lemon and the citron existed there. Moreover, it is well accepted that lemons derive from citrons. There is evidence of a mixture of characteristics between lemons and citrons in the modern Indian Citrus jambhiri, which is analogous to the lemon in certain ways and to the citron in terms of the wrinkles of its skin.


 

Webber et al. (1967) consider southern China and probably Upper Burma to be the native home of the lemon. Gallesio, De Candolle and other early writers consider that the lemon was unknown to the Mediterranean people until the 10th cen- tury, when the Arabs brought the first lemons from India. According to Tolkowsky, these authors are mistaken: in fact, some branches with citron and lemon fruits can be seen in a mosaic in a Roman villa at Carthage (2nd century AD). Calabrese (1998) adds some more pictorial and musive depictions to those of Tolkowsky, such as the mosaics of the Villa del Casale di Piazza Armerina in Sicily and the Pompeian fresco of the Casa del Frutteto in Pompei and of the National Museum of Naples, and states that the lemon was well known by the Romans since the imperial period, although there are no literary references to this species.

To confirm the above-mentioned theory, other lemons are admirably repre- sented in one of the best preserved Roman mosaics: the decoration of the vault of the Mausoleum of Saint Constance in Rome built by the Emperor Constant, son of the Emperor Constantine (306–337 AD).

Webber et al. (1967) say, with reason-

able certainty, that the lemon, as well as the citron, the sour orange and the pummelo, had been introduced by the Arabs into Spain and the countries of North Africa by 1150 AD. The lemon is described in all the works of Arabian writers of the 12th cen- tury, and it is certain that the culture of the lemon was furthered by the Arabs in Palestine and Persia and commonly grown there. The fi rst literary mention of the lemon, as well as the sour orange, in the Arabic language is in the ‘Book of Nabatian Agriculture’, a collection of ancient writ- ings edited by the Iraqi agronomist Ibn el- Wahshya in 904 AD. The author calls the lemon hasia in the Nabatian language and affi rms that in Persia it was known by the term limun, and it derives from the citron and produces a round, aromatic fruit. However, not all authors accept that this description corresponds to the lemon; it could be a citron or a lime and, to support


 


this theory, some scholars speak of a limun or a limu with a non-acid pulp and so the fruit referred to could be the Mediterranean lime.

Following the activity of the Arabs in spreading citrus, the role of the Crusades in the West was very important. It was the fi rst four crusades (1096–1204) which facilitated the spread of citrus fruit to France. During the 13th century, lemons were grown in Italy and in the South of France and Spain. Matteo Silvatico, a ligurian doctor at the beginning of the 14th century, claims in his Opus Pandectarum Medicinae that lemon juice is used as a medicine and as an appetite stimulant; moreover, the lemon was considered an effective remedy against worms and in curing pestilential fevers, and nausea in pregnant women.

Since the 15th century, the Spanish, the Portuguese and other navigators have been responsible for the spread of citrus in different subtropical areas of the world. It seems that the lemon, as well as other species, reached the USA thanks to Christopher Columbus who brought seeds and plants there from the island of Haiti during his voyage in 1493.

 

 

Sour and sweet oranges

The sour orange (Citrus aurantium L.) is believed to be native to South-east Asia, possibly India, while the sweet orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck) originated in southern China and possibly as far south as Indonesia (Webber et al., 1967).

The sour orange was the fi rst species that spread from its native land to the West. Gallesio maintains that it was unknown to the Romans, while Tolkowsky, in total dis- agreement, asserts that the Romans were familiar with sour oranges. However, his theory loses credibility when he claims that the Romans were also familiar with sweet oranges. Webber et al. consider that sour oranges may have been brought to the Mediterranean basin after the Arab con- quests; during the 10th century into Persia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and later


into North Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and Spain. It seems that the fi rst description of the sour orange was given by Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) who called it Arangus.

According to Tolkowsky, the orange tree (sour orange) was known in Italy before Pompeii was destroyed (~70 AD) since there is a clear representation of an orange in a Pompeian mosaic.

Tolkowsky asserted that the sweet orange grew in Italy during the early Christian era, but no written evidence was found until the 15th century. By the begin- ning of the 16th century, evidence appears of the commercial importance of sweet oranges in Southern Europe. It is not so easy to trace how the sweet orange reached Europe for the fi rst time since indications regarding its introduction into the Mediterranean area are often confl icting. Some authors support the view that the Portuguese brought it from India after they discovered the direct sea route around the Cape of Good Hope (1497) or after they reached China for the fi rst time in 1518. Valmont de Bomare (1764) states that the fi rst imported tree from which all the sweet orange trees of Europe are derived was imported from China and acclimatized in Lisbon at that time in the garden belonging to Count St Laurent. In confl ict with this theory, Gallesio (1811) describes two docu- ments found in the archives of Savona, one dated 1471 and the other a year later, 1472, which indicate sweet oranges; they are called citruli in the fi rst document and cit- ranguli in the second one. The hypothesis that the Portuguese brought oranges to Italy for the fi rst time has little credibility; in fact, the culture of the sweet orange in Liguria was very extensive at the beginning of the 16th century but the Portuguese did not go there before about 1520. The ques- tion is, what is the origin of these oranges? Gallesio reported that they reached Europe from South Asia during the commercial trade route established and maintained by the Genoese during the Crusades. This hypothesis is based on the fact that several mentions of the sweet orange can be found


 


 

in the literature of the 15th century. Tolkowsky also says that the sweet orange was known in Italy, Spain and Portugal before the voyage of Vasco de Gama (1498). In all three of these countries we can fi nd specifi c literary references dating to the beginning of 1500, so it seems that the sweet orange reached Europe some time in the early part of that century, probably over the Genoese trade route.

 

 

The mandarin

China is one of the native homes of the mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) and has a cultivation history of about 4000 years. Hirai et al. (1986) put forward the sugges- tion that cultivated mandarins have three origins: India, China and Japan. The man- darins in China were originally divided into two groups: Kan or Gan (Macroacrumen) and Chu or Ju (Microacrumen) on the basis of colour, shape and size of the fruit, surface, thick- ness and smell of the fruit peel, taste of the pulp and morphological tree characteristics (Li et al., 1992).

The earliest record of Ju was in the book ‘Tribute of Yu’ during the kingdom of Ta Yu (2205–2197 BC).

The word Kan fi rst appeared as Huang Kan, Cheng and Lu Chu during the Han dynasty (202 BC–220 AD). According to recorded history, although mandarins were cultivated in China as early as the time before the Xia dynasty (21st–16th century BC), the concept of fruit varieties was not developed until about the 3rd century during the Chin dynasty (265–420 AD). Before this period, mandarins had been called Ju, but this word was used for all citrus plants, such as the sour orange and the Yuzu (C. junos Tanaka), cultivated at that time (Li et al., 1992).

The mandarin is the foremost citrus in Japan. Mandarin seeds were brought to Japan from China, probably to Kagoshima on Kyushu island; the fi rst reference to the mandarin in Japanese literature was made by Kokwan (1278–1346 AD) (Spiegel-Roy


 

and Goldschmidt, 1996).

Tolkowsky says that the introduction of the mandarin into Europe is fairly recent. The fi rst European country to grow the small, loose-skinned mandarin orange was England; the first mandarin tree was brought there from China in 1805, and it was from England that the tree spread, fi rst to Malta and then to Sicily and to continen- tal Italy.

 

 

The pummelo and the grapefruit

The pummelo (C. grandis (L.) Osbeck) is of tropical origin; according to Hodgson (1967), it seems reasonably certain that the pummelo is indigenous to the Malayan and East Indian archipelagos. The number of varieties in the Malay Archipelago indi- cates an ancient cultivation.

It may have spread from the Malay and Indian Archipelagos to China and not vice versa (Spiegel-Roy and Goldschmidt, 1996); it later spread to Persia, Palestine and Europe. According to Tolkowsky (1938), it was mentioned in Palestine in 1187 AD and also in Spain, in the same period. In 1646, Ferrarius in his Hesperides, sive de malo- rum aureorum cultura et usu described and illustrated several kinds of pummelo grow- ing in Italy (Fig. 3.5).

According to Webber (1943), the pum- melo was described for the fi rst time in Jamaica by Sloane (1696) who used the

 

Fig. 3.5. Aurantium maximum (pummelo) as represented by Ferrarius in Hesperides (1646) pp. 439 and 441.


 


name ‘shaddock’, and the same author added, later, in 1707, that the seed of the pummelo was brought to Barbados by Captain Shaddock, the Commander of an East Indian ship.

The grapefruit (C. paradisi Macf.) appears to have originated as a mutation or hybrid of the shaddock in the West Indies, perhaps Barbados. The fruit was mentioned for the fi rst time by Griffi th Hughes in his The Natural History of Barbados (1750); he writes of a ‘ forbidden fruit ’, describing its pyriform shape and the absence of winged petioles. He describes the size of the fruit as ‘… between a large orange and the fruit of the smaller pummelo tree … ’ and deems it to be ‘truly exquisite’.

 

 

The lime

Limes comprise a varied group of types – both acid and sweet varieties – which are so different from one another in tree and fruit characteristics that they have been given separate species status. There are two kinds of acid limes, the small-fruited Mexican (West Indian, Key) type, C. aurantifolia Swing., and the large-fruited Tahiti (Persian, Bearss) lime, C. latifolia Tan., which is triploid and therefore seedless.

Citrus aurantifolia is native to the Malaysian region of south-western Asia, while C. latifolia probably originated in the East and then spread to Persia, and then to Tahiti, possibly via Brazil and Australia, and fi nally to California.

Citrus limettioides Tan., the sweet lime, commonly referred to as the Indian or Palestine sweet lime, is native to north-east- ern India where it is known as Mitha nimboo, while in Egypt it goes by the name of Limun helou.

Papedas

The subgenus Papeda (according to the Swingle taxonomy system) comprises six species (C. ichangensis, C. latipes, C. micrantha, C. celebica, C. macroptera and


C. hystrix) which are native to different areas. Citrus ichangensis is native to south- western and west-central China where it grows in a truly wild state (Swingle, 1967); on the contrary, Scora (1975) considers that this species, along with C. latipes, origi- nated in the sub-Himalayan area and then spread in south-western China, north-east- ern India and northern Burma, far north of the range of the other Papedas. Swingle considers that C. latipes originated in a col- lection of plants in the Khasi Hill of north- eastern India. However, very similar types can be found in the mountains of northern Burma. Citrus micrantha seems to be native to the southern Philippine Islands, while C. celebica originated in the Celebes Islands in Indonesia. Citrus macroptera was discov- ered by Father Montrouzier on the Island of Art, situated a few miles to the north-west of the north end of New Caledonia (Swingle, 1967). Finally, the last species belonging to Papeda is C. hystrix, the best known and most widely distributed species of this subgenus in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and numerous Pacifi c Islands, but its exact origin is unknown.

 

 






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