JAMAICA. 



BULLETIN 



OP THB 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



New Series.] DECEMBER, 1898. 



CITRATE OF LIME AND CONCENTRATED 

 LEMON AND LIME JUICE. 



By Francis Watts, Q-overament Ckemist, 



Some attention has lately been directed to citrate of lime and it has 

 been suggested that this should form an article of export from Ja- 

 maica. 



It is well known that lemon and lime juice constitute the raw mate- 

 ial from which citric acid is manufactured ; these juices usually con- 

 tain from 10 to 15 ounces of citric acid per gallon, sometimes exceed- 

 ing these limits from exceptional causes ; if exported in this condition 

 the cost for freight and packages would be exceedingly high, hence 

 efforts are made to obtain the citric acid in a more concentrated form. 

 Three methods of doing this have been suggested, concentration of the 

 juice by boiling, the preparation of citrate of lime, and finally the pre- 

 paration of citric acid in the country where the fruit is grown. The 

 first two have for their object merely the production of raw material 

 for the manufacturer iu a concentrated form. 



The preparation of concentrated lemon and lime juice is a very sim- 

 ple matter : The juice is passed through strainers to remove seeds and 

 floating impurities, and is then boiled down to a proper degree of con- 

 centration, in copper or iron vessels, over open fires much in the same 

 way that cane juice is evaporated in the old fashioned muscovado pro- 

 cess of sugar making. When several evaporating vessels are placed 

 in a series over the same fire, forming a battery, it is important to 

 notice that the vessel or pan in which the juice is brought to its high- 

 est state of concentration is furthest from the fire while that contaiuing 

 the fresh juice is over the fire itself ; thus a battery for lime juice is 

 hung in the reverse way to a sugar battery. 



In concentrating lemon juice efforts are made to obtain a product 

 containing 64 ounces of citric acid per gallon, this being regarded as the 

 standard strength, and a pipe of 108 gallons being regarded as a stan- 

 dard package ; hence when the market price of concentrated juice ii 



Vol. V. 



Part 12 



