Limonene

pWotD Episode 3282: Limonene Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 163,072 views on Monday, 27 April 2026 our article of the day is Limonene.Limonene () is a colorless liquid aliphatic hydrocarbon classified as a cyclic monoterpene, and is the major component in the fragrance and essential oil of citrus fruit peels, taking its name from Italian limone ("lemon").Limonene is a chiral molecule, and most biological sources produce just one enantiomer (isomer). The (+)-isomer, d-limonene, which is the (R)-enantiomer, occurs more commonly in nature in citrus fruit peels, the principal commercial source, from which it is obtained commercially by two primary methods: centrifugal separation and steam distillation. d-Limonene is used as a flavoring agent in food manufacturing, in chemical synthesis as a precursor to carvone, and as a renewables-based solvent in cleaning products. It has a "citrus, orange, fresh, sweet, peely" aroma.The less common (−)-isomer, l-limonene, which is the (S)-enantiomer, has a piny, turpentine-like odour, and is found in the edible parts of such plants as caraway, dill, and bergamot orange plants.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 03:09 UTC on Tuesday, 28 April 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Limonene on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @[email protected] check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Kendra.