Results of a recent study show that citral, a lemon-tasting oil used in foods, slows the development of myopia in guinea pigs.

Presenting the results of their study at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Hawai’i, the researchers in Shanghai, China, said they induced myopia in guinea pigs and fed them citral or retinoic acid. A control group was also studied.  Animals fed retinoic acid were more nearsighted than the control group; citral-fed animals were less nearsighted than the control group.

Citral is known to inhibit the creation of retinoic acid in the body, suggesting that inhibiting retinoic acid synthesis may be a viable target for a future drug to treat myopia.

“This finding may provide a new perspective to investigate the mechanism of myopia development and a new way to inhibit myopia progression. But, there is a long way to go from bench to bedside,” said first author Manrong Yu of Fudan University.