INTRODUCTION
Sweet orange is a strum belonging to the plant family ruracea with a botanical name citrus simrnsia. They are berries but because or their unusual structure, they are called fresperidiums. Sweet oranges originates in southern China thousands of yeast’s ago. Now they are most popular and wide spread of the citrus fruits. Citrus saneness (sweet oranges) can be grown is most parts of the tropics where than five months and where there is fairly even distribution of rainfall throughout the year. The trees can be grown from seed but its more usual to buy budded citrus sincensis from private nursery men or form official Agricultural sources. Citrus saneness is a spreading ever green, some time spiny trees up to 12m fall with ovale elliptic leaves which are commonly 7-10cm long dark green and routed at the base. They are carried on short articulated petioles with very narrow wins. The leaves are strongly scented the white sweet smelling flowers are smaller than those of the group. The rounded fruits are up to 12cm in diameter. Deep yellow to orange or in humict climate remaining green when ripe. Sweet oranges (citrus saneness) are trotrical crops. They are also annual crops (Cobley 1976)
In a typical sweet orange, the excerpt and mesa carp are leathery and protect the juicy inner tissue deceived from the endocarp from damage and desiccation. The epidermis of the fruit has a thick cuticle and varying number of stomata, the excerpt or flavedo is a layer of irregular photosynthctically active parenchyma cells which is green in young fruit and becoming orange or greenish when they nature. The mesocarp is thicker than the exocarp and consists of inter cellular space. The mesocarp is know as the albedo. It is rich in vitamin C sugar cellulose and in pectin. The mesocarp and excarp together form the bird of the fruit. The center of the fruit is occupied by the development carpels of the ovary which are disposed around the pithy axis in form of several closely packed segments. Each segment develops from a single carpal and is surrounded by thin, transparent endocarp or “ray” form which multi-cellular hairs grow to fill each segment. Each huge cell or pulp vesicle of these hairs fills with juice and they form the edible part of the fruit for which the crops are grown. The seed lies on axle placenta close to the central axis and in the nature fruit is about 40- 45 percent juice 30 percent rind and 30 percent pulp and seeds which taken together consists of about 90 percent water 5-10 percent sugar 1-2 percent petunias various acids, essential oil proteins and minerals.
Generally the fruit contains 80-90 percent of sugar and acids with relative proportion varying between other species of citrus. Citric acid is the abundant acid in the sap. Pectin in the juice gives it a cloudy colloidal appearance. Cilrus nsinensis contain mineral salts, glycosides, small amount of protein and vitamin (cobley 1976) it is a good source of cirus are citrus paradisc (grape fruit) citrus limon (lemon) citrus aurantatifolia (lime) citrus aurantinum (sour orange) citrus reticulate (tangermie and maudanine) citrus grandis (pummelo) and citrus medical (citron) The sugar and acids vary between species.
The medical potency of sweet orange (citrus smeasin) is due to its high content in vitamin C which is believed to stimulated the production of white blood cells, primarily neutrophib, which attack foreign antigens such as bacteria and viruses. It also boost the body’s production of antibodies and interferon, the protein that helps protect us from viral invaders and cancer cells. (Uddoh, 1998). The importance of vitamin C from citrus fruits in prevention of scurvy was scientifically proven in 1756 by John Lind (Rudolph et al 1978)
The skin is normally an effective barrier to pathogens, but skin may be broken example by wounding, surgery or the “bites” of insects etc. Wounds may admit any of the variety of potential pathogens capable of causing systemic disease (disease affecting the entire body) or localized disease. Bacterial pathogens can enter via “bites” (singleton 1995). Marmoin et al (1973) state that there are many organisms associated with wound infections, which are, propionibacterium, Klebsiella, staphylococcus, Escherichia coli etc. superficial infection are skin pustutes, boils, carbunictes, impetize, penphigus, neonatorum, sycosis barbae, paronychia styles, blepheritis and conjunctivitis” infections of accidental and surgical wounds.