Studies Done on Limes

Sun, salt, and lime juice are the ingredients in which scientists say can provide clean, inexpensive water in areas of the world where its not available. While the solar disinfection of drinking water (SODIS) is already used by six hours of sunlightexposed water in (preferably) glass containers, some parts of the world have only dirty water available, and no filter, which prevents sun rays from exacting the purification process. But tiny amounts of salt added to the water adheres to and weighs down dirt particles, and lime juice added in further testing, showed more rapid disinfecting ability due to large quantities of psoralen compounds in the limes that bond with DNA strands in the presence of sunlight, preventing DNA replication. This method reducedE. colicontamination by about a million times in just 30 minutes; SODIS by itself had only about a quarter of this effectiveness.