The Effects of Lemon Juice on the Eyes
Health ConditionsEye & Vision Health

The Effects of Lemon Juice on the Eyes

The Effects of Lemon Juice on the Eyes
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Updated on July 31, 2025
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Lemons are considered one of the most important fruits in the world when it comes to health due to their high levels of bioactive compounds.

 The vitamins, minerals, and chemical compounds in lemons can improve health, including eye health.

However, there are no benefits to using a lemon eye wash. In fact, applying lemon juice directly to your eyes can be extremely irritating to the cornea and conjunctiva.

Lemons and Ocular Health

Lemons have a variety of essential nutrients that make them beneficial for eye health. In particular, the vitamin C in lemons is thought to lower the risk of cataracts.

When taken alongside other nutrients, vitamin C can slow the progression of age-related macular degeneration and visual acuity loss. Vitamin C also functions as an antioxidant, giving it an even wider range of health benefits.

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is an essential nutrient, which means your body is unable to produce it.

 It's obtained by consuming foods, beverages, or supplements. However, unlike some other essential nutrients, vitamin C is soluble in water.

 Your body can absorb it through creams, serums, and even eye drops.

Most people need between 75 and 90 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C each day.

 A single lemon, which yields around 48 grams of lemon juice, contains 18.6 mg of vitamin C.

 This is about 24.8 percent of the recommended daily value for adult women and about 20.7 percent for adult men.

Vitamin C in Eye Drops

According to one research review, topical ascorbic acid helped reduce inflammatory cells and helped heal chemical burns on the cornea in a study conducted on mice.

 This vitamin's antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune-regulating properties also make it helpful in preventing dry eye disease.
Because vitamin C is an antioxidant, it can scavenge for free radicals that have the potential to damage the eyes. Research indicates it also plays a role in protecting the eyes from ultraviolet radiation.

These benefits mean that vitamin C can promote ocular health in a variety of ways. For example, one research review reported that eye drops containing ascorbic acid helped promote corneal wound healing in an animal trial.

Despite these benefits, do not use a lemon eye wash on your eyes. The various benefits of vitamin C are not obtained by applying lemon juice to eye wounds or squeezing lemon in your eye directly. In fact, using lemon in this way could be dangerous for your eyes and is very likely to irritate them.

Lemon Eye Wash Is Dangerous

Lemon juice is extremely acidic, primarily due to its citric acid levels.

 One study found that lemon juice has a pH of 2.5.

 In comparison, the human eye's tear film, which covers the ocular surface, has a pH of 7.45.

As you would expect, applying anything acidic to your eyes will cause them to sting and hurt.

 If you were to put pure lemon juice in your eye, you'd experience severe irritation. There's a small chance you might even end up with an acid burn, resulting in damage to the superficial layers of the eye.

There are also health risks associated with using a diluted lemon eye wash. In addition to the potential irritation from the acids in lemon juice, using standard drinking water from the tap would risk an eye infection and additional irritation.

Tap water and other nonsterile liquids can contain pathogens, including Acanthamoeba.

 When you apply nonsterile liquids to your eyes, you run the risk of these pathogens infecting your eyes and causing a disease known as keratitis.

 Although this condition usually involves symptoms like watery eyes, pain, and redness, it can also result in loss of vision. Severe keratitis can require a corneal transplant.
To prevent eye infections like these, avoid using any homemade lemon eye wash products.

Fresh lemon juice in your eye is no safer due to its acid content.

 Ultimately, it's best to stick to sterile pharmaceutical products containing vitamin C. These will have exactly the right amount of ascorbic acid for optimal ocular health.

Lemon Juice Has Nutritional Benefits

Lemon juice is more than just ascorbic acid. It provides a variety of other beneficial antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that are good for your health. A cup of lemon juice has:

  • 10 percent of the daily value (DV) of potassium for women; 7.4 percent of the DV for men

  • 126 percent of the DV of vitamin C for women; 105 percent of the DV for men

  • 5 percent of the DV of vitamin B1 (thiamin)

  • 6 percent of the DV of vitamin B5

  • 9 percent of the DV of vitamin B6

  • 12 percent of the DV of vitamin B9 (folate)

Some of the most important nutrients for eye health include vitamins A, C, and E as well as carotenoids, flavonoids, selenium, and unsaturated fatty acids.

 Lemon juice has all of these nutrients, though some are only present in small amounts.

Eating or drinking lemon juice allows your body to absorb these vitamins and minerals. However, you're unlikely to drink a cup of lemon juice for the same reason you wouldn't want to apply lemon juice to your eye: It's too acidic.

Fortunately, lemon juice is an extremely common and versatile ingredient. You can add lemon juice into fresh juices, smoothies, and cocktails. It's commonly used in a variety of baked goods and desserts, especially sorbets. Lemon is considered an essential component of curries, hummus, and many popular sauces, including mayonnaise.

Lemon Juice Has Health Benefits

Consumption of lemons and lemon juice has also been associated with a wide variety of other health benefits. According to one research review, lemons can possibly:

  • Counteract fevers
  • Help normalize blood pressure
  • Help regulate blood sugar levels
  • Help resolve urinary tract infections
  • Help prevent cancerous tumor growth
  • Help prevent the formation of bladder and kidney stones
  • Prevent scurvy
  • Promote digestion
  • Strengthen the immune system and reduce inflammation
  • Soothe sore throats
  • Support weight loss

The Takeaway

  • Lemons have long been known to improve health — including eye health — via the high levels of bioactive compounds they contain.
  • While lemons can benefit ocular health, it's never safe to use lemon juice or a diluted lemon wash on eyes. Stick to consuming the fruit and juice of lemons.
  • Topical eye treatments that contain vitamin C (ascorbic acid), one of the main components in lemon juice, have shown promise in preliminary research for the treatment of corneal wounds and preventing dry eye disease.
  • Always consult your eye doctor if you have a corneal wound, dry eye disease, or another condition before trying topical ascorbic acid treatments.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
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Edmund-Tsui-bio

Edmund Tsui, MD

Medical Reviewer

Edmund Tsui, MD, is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

He earned his medical degree from Dartmouth. He completed an ophthalmology residency at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where he was chief resident, followed by a fellowship in uveitis and ocular inflammatory disease at the Francis I. Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology at the University of California in San Francisco.

Dr. Tsui is committed to advancing the field of ophthalmology. His research focuses on utilizing state-of-the-art ophthalmic imaging technology to improve the diagnosis and monitoring of uveitis. He is a co-investigator in several multicenter clinical trials investigating therapeutics for uveitis. He is the author of over 80 peer-reviewed publications and has given talks at national and international conferences.

Along with his clinical and research responsibilities, Tsui teaches medical students and residents. He is on the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology's professional development and education committee, as well as the advocacy and outreach committee, which seeks to increase funding and awareness of vision research. He also serves on the editorial board of Ophthalmology and the executive committee of the American Uveitis Society.

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Siddhi Camila Lama is an independent science, travel, and gastronomy writer. She is a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach with a Master of Science in Organ, Tissue, and Cellular Transplantation and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering. Her writing has been featured in publications like Gastro Obscura, BrainFacts, and Medium's One Zero.

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