Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C)
Scurvy in man has been known for centuries. The use of fresh vegetables and especially of the juice of lemons and of limes was established as specific cures for the condition centuries ago. The earliest accurate description of the disease and its control was published by Lind in 1757 in his "Treatise on Scurvy." Years later limes became a required article in the diet of the English Navy. The terms limey for English sailors and Limehouse for the wharf area in London stem from this fact. Vitamin C deficiency not only was prevalent on long sea voyages because fresh foods were unavailable, but also was epidemic over parts of the world during times of famine and war.
During the wars of our own times outbreaks of scurvy in parts of the world have not been uncommon. Progress in the development of specific knowledge concerning vitamin C was initiated by Hoist and Frolich in 1907. These investigators showed that a scorbutic state could be produced in guinea pigs by restricting the diet of these animals to oats and bran. This development paved the way for intensive research into the properties of a protective substance in certain foods as well as into the biochemical defects associated with the scorbutic state. Zilva and associates provided important information on the concentration of active antiscorbutic material from lemon juice and on certain important chemical properties of the active substance.
They showed, for instance, that following oxidative destruction of the principle, the activity could be restored by reduction and proposed a relation between antiscorbutic activity and reducing power of his preparations. In 1928 Szent-Gyorgyi isolated a strong reducing substance from adrenal glands of rats and from citrus juices. The name hexuronic acid was given to this material. It was only a matter of a few years before hexuronic acid, and the reducing stance of Zilva were shown to be vitamin C, the antiscorbutic vitamin.
Waugh and King reported in 1932 that the vitamin C isolated by them-from lemon juice and the reducing heurbnic acid studied by others were identical because of the similarity in many chemical and physical properties as well as in biological potency in protecting guinea -,~ against scurvy. It was well agreed at this time by workers in the field that vitamin C an acid with the general formula C6Ha06' Several proposed structures were offered, but true configuration of the molecule was established in 1933 in Haworth's laboratory in gland. The same year the synthesis of ascorbic acid was achieved by Reichstein and corkers and also by Haworth's group.
