Who isolated vitamin c

By adding citrus juice to peroxidase, the browning process could be stopped. In his experiments he isolated a substance he called, hexuronic acid that he thought was active within citrus juice. This was one of the first steps in the discovery of what we know today as vitamin C.

He decided to rename hexuronic acid to ascorbic acid or vitamin C, reflecting its anti-scorbutic scurvy fighting properties. It took many years to find a way to produce large amounts of ascorbic acid from natural sources. It was by chance he found the answer in his dinner! The story goes that he did not want to eat the paprika in his dinner, so he took it to his laboratory, where he found it to contain large amounts of vitamin C. Without his discovery we would not know that vitamin C is important for proper functioning of our immune system.

By eating our daily dose of fruits and vegetables, which contain vitamin C, we improve the repair and growth of tissue and many more factors that keep us healthy. He is also known for his later contribution to what we know as the Citric Acid Krebs cycle. Prolonged vitamin C deficiency leads to scurvy and, if left untreated, can be fatal.

Symptoms of scurvy include feeling tired, bleeding gums or skin that bruises. As these symptoms worsen, patients may develop open sores, lose teeth and can even die.

Other symptoms include impaired wound healing, muscle weakness and hemorrhages an escape of blood from a ruptured blood vessel. Sounds pretty nasty, right? People have complained about this disease since ancient times. Some records of scurvy have been around since BC Egypt [ 1 ]. Scurvy was a big problem for sailors in the eighteenth century. They ate a lot of dried meats and grains and did not include fruits and vegetables in their diet.

This was because these foods would not remain fresh on long sea journeys. In , James Lind, a Scottish doctor, discovered that fresh citrus fruits could prevent scurvy. It was then mandatory for sailors in the British navy to consume citrus fruits and lemon juice [ 2 ]. In , other scientists like Axel Holst and Alfred Frohlich proposed that a special substance existed in these fruits [ 2 ] while Casimir Funk coined the term Vitamin C in [ 3 ].

Ascorbic acid vitamin C is an organic compound made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen Figure 1. It is a white solid, made synthetically from sugar dextrose when it is in its purest form. It can also be used as a vitamin supplement or as a food preservative [ 4 ]. Have your parents told you to drink orange juice when you were sick? This is because orange juice has a high level of vitamin C and can keep us healthy or treat a cold. The human body is unable to produce vitamin C and we must therefore get it through our food or by taking a multivitamin.

Vitamin C allows the body to use carbohydrates, fats, and protein. The Ebers Papyrus of about BC gives an account of a disease likely to be scurvy. The suggested treatment of this disease is to eat onions, which we now know contain small amounts of vitamin C.

With limited food, scurvy breaks out amongst his men. The native Indians suggest a remedy — a drink made by soaking the bark of a local tree. The remedy works. He divides them into 6 pairs, giving each group different additions to their basic diet. Those fed citrus fruits experience a remarkable recovery. British navy physician Gilbert Blane influences the Admiralty to issue regulations for the universal use of citrus juice as a daily ration on board British naval vessels.

The scourge of scurvy is forever banished from the British navy. Toward the end of the 15th century, scurvy was cited as the major cause of disability and mortality among sailors on long sea voyages. Although Danish mariners were long acquainted with the condition, and included lemons and oranges in their marine stores, it was not until that scurvy was recognized in the British medical community at large as directly related to dietary deficiency.

In , William Stark, a young British physician, began a series of experiments on diet and nutrition, using himself as the experimental subject. After consuming only bread and water for 31 days, Stark added other foods to his diet one by one, including olive oil, figs, goose meat, and milk. In two months, Stark recorded that his gums were red and swollen, bleeding easily to the touch.

Seven months later he died, possibly from scurvy, and likely from the cumulative effects of malnutrition. At the time, no one, including Lind, knew of the existence of ascorbic acid, which would eventually become commonly known as vitamin C. Vitamin C enables the body to efficiently use carbohydrates, fats, and protein. Because vitamin C acts as an antioxidant — a nutrient that chemically binds and neutralizes the tissue-damaging effects of substances known as free radicals — it is vital to the growth and health of bones, teeth, gums, ligaments, and blood vessels.

Vitamin C is found in various foods, including citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, and grapefruit; in green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, and cabbage; and in tomatoes and potatoes. Food processing may degrade or destroy vitamin C, as can exposure to air, drying, salting, cooking especially in copper pots , or processing.

Freezing does not usually cause loss of vitamin C unless foods are stored for a very long time. In modern times, access to fresh fruits and vegetables is common, rendering full-blown cases of vitamin C deficiency relatively rare. Cases are normally limited to isolated elderly adults, usually men whose diet is limited to foods lacking in vitamin C, as well as to infants fed reconstituted milk or milk substitutes without a vitamin C or orange juice supplement.

Those with certain illnesses, such as AIDS, cancer or tuberculosis, surgical patients, and those exposed to long periods of cold temperatures can also suffer from vitamin C insufficiency. The existence of vitamin C was long suspected. Researchers Axel Holst and Alfred Frohlich had proposed its existence as early as , but no definitive agent emerged as the likely candidate. He enrolled at the University of Budapest, but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I.

He began his scientific career by studying the chemical changes that occur when cells utilize foodstuffs, such as carbohydrates, fats, and protein, a process sometimes known as biological combustion. While conducting a series of experiments on citrus plants, he found that browning could be induced with peroxidase, a plant enzyme active in oxidation. Life is a wondrous phenomenon. There he showed his sample of hexuronic acid to J.