Phytochemicals in finger lime and their potential health benefits: A review

ABSTRACTCitrus australasica, also named finger lime, has been drawing lots of attention recently due to its potent antioxidant capacity and health-promoting benefits. They have been applied to the food industry as fruit or processed into soda, flavor liquor, jam, and dried powder. Especially, phenolic compounds are of prime interest as a large group of bioactive components in finger lime, including phenolic acids, flavan-3-ols, flavanones, anthocyanins, flavones, flavonols, and iso-flavonoids. Besides, other bioactive phytochemicals have also shown their roles, such as organic acids, minerals, carotenoids, vitamins, and chlorophylls. They synergically trigger finger lime to be a beneficial source, which can prevent people from chronic diseases, including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, by avoiding excessive intake of nutrients (anti-nutritional activity) and releasing oxidation pressure (antioxidant capacity). Therefore, the extracts of finger lime can be used as a functional ingredient in alimentology or pharmacology areas to lower the risk. Our review aimed to summarize the specific bioactive compounds and their corresponding bioactivities in finger lime.KEYWORDS: Finger limephenolic compoundsantioxidantanti-nutritionalbioactivitiestherapeutic effects AcknowledgmentsWe would like to thank researchers of the Dr Hafiz Suleria group from the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, the University of Melbourne for their incredible support.Disclosure statementThe authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.Additional informationFundingDr Hafiz Suleria is the recipient of an Australian Research Council—Discovery Early Career Award (ARC-DECRA—DE220100055) funded by the Australian Government. This research was funded by the University of Melbourne under the McKenzie Fellowship Scheme (Grant No. UoM-18/21), the Future Food Hallmark Research Initiative Funds (Grant No. UoM-21/23) and Collaborative Research Development Grant (Grant No. UoM-21/23) funded by the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, the University of Melbourne, Australia. Australian Research Council - Discovery Early Career Award (ARC-DECRA – DE220100055). founded by Australian Government.