Kaffir Lime

Kaffir lime is one of famous herbs in Thailand, there are many usefuls of this herb I want to let you know. When I was young, my grandmother used kaffir lime for hair treatment. She told me that it made her hair silky and smootly.

For hair treatment, the Kaffir lime fruits were boiled with water in the pot. Leave them at room temperature for a while, massage gently your hair and leave for 20-30 minutes. The ador of Kaffir lime herb made me relaxed when I leave, I recommend... I think this is the good way for hair herbal treatment, lets try!!!

In addition, Kaffir lime fruits and Kaffir lime leave are found and used in Thai kitchen, they are very important herbs for my cooking. Tom Yam Kung, Thai curreies, seafood cuisines - we need this herb!!!

The Kaffir lime (Citrus hystrix DC., Rutaceae), also known as kieffer lime, makrut, or magrood (Thai Herb), is a type of lime native to Indonesia, commonly used in Southeast Asian cuisine, and widely grown worldwide as a backyard shrub.

The Kaffir lime is a rough, bumpy green fruit that grows on very thorny bush with aromatic leaves. It is well suited to container growing. The green lime fruit is distinguished by its bumpy exterior and its small size (approx. 4 cm wide).

Naming of Kaffir Lime
Burma: shauk-nu, shauk-waing
Cambodia: krauch soeuch
China: fatt-fung-kam
Malaysia: limau purut
Indonesia: jeruk purut, jeruik limo, jeruk sambal
Philippines: swangi
Sri Lanka: kahpiri dehi, odu dehi, kudala-dehi
Thailand: makrud, som makrud

Uses of Kaffir Lime
Citrus hystrix fruit (left), used in Southeast asian cooking, with galangal root.

Kaffir lime leaves are also a popular herbal ingredient in South East Asian cooking, such as Indonesian, and Thailand. Its hourglass-shaped leaves (comprising the leaf blade plus a flattened, leaf-like leaf-stalk or petiole) are widely used in Thai cuisine (for dishes such as tom yum), Lao cuisine, and Cambodian cuisine, for the base paste known as "Krueng". The leaves are also popular in Indonesian cuisine (especially Balinese and Javanese), for foods such as sayur assam - literally sour vegetables, and are also used along with Indonesian bay leaf for chicken and fish. They are also found in Malay and Burmese cuisines.

The leaves of the Kaffir Lime herb can be used fresh or dried, and can be stored frozen.

The juice and rinds of of the Kaffir Lime herb are used in traditional Indonesian medicine; for this reason the fruit is sometimes referred to in Indonesia as jeruk obat - literally "medicine citrus". The oil from the rind also has strong insecticidal properties.

The zest of the fruit is widely used in creole cuisine and to impart flavor to "arranged" rums in the Reunion island and Madagascar.

Ref : http://en.wikipedia.org