'Lemon' is a variety created by humans over 4,000 years ago.
Lemons are used to flavor fish and meat, and dozens of varieties are produced around the world today. However, lemons did not originally exist in nature, and are said to have originated in East Asia more than 4,000 years ago.
How the Lemon was Invented
According to linguist Kurt Kalecka, lemons were first cultivated in what is now Myanmar over 4,000 years ago. They were created by crossbreeding
Lemons, which were primarily cultivated in Southeast Asia, were introduced to Italy by the 1st century BC, and in the 9th century they were brought to Sicily , which remains a major lemon producing region to this day.
Later, when the Normans conquered Sicily in the 11th century, lemons were introduced to continental Europe, and by the 15th century lemon production had flourished in Italy and Spain, which are at relatively low latitudes.
In 1493,
Lemons are used not only in cooking but also in medicine. In fact, in 1747, Scottish physician James Lind discovered that lemon juice was useful in preventing scurvy , a disease that was a problem among sailors at the time. Scurvy is now called 'vitamin C deficiency,' but science at the time did not have the concept of 'vitamins,' so Lind's discovery was a breakthrough at the time.
Hundreds of years before Lind's discovery, it was already known in Portugal that lemons and other citrus fruits could prevent scurvy, and in the late 15th century, orange and lemon trees were planted along trade routes in Portugal.
At first, it was difficult to get fresh lemons to sailors, but by the mid-19th century, a man named Rachlin Rose was selling a product called 'Rose's lime juice,' and the Royal Navy made it mandatory for all ships to carry 'Rose's lime juice.'
With the effectiveness of lemons against scurvy proven and the requirement to load them on ships, consumption of lemons increased dramatically, and lemon plantations began to spread all over the world.
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