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| Ascorbate |
| Ascorbate (an ion of ascorbic acid) is required for a range of essential metabolic reactions in all animals and plants. It is made internally by almost all organisms, humans being a notable exception. Deficiency in this vitamin causes scurvy in humans. |
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The vast majority of animals and plants are able to synthesize their
own vitamin C, through a sequence of four enzyme-driven steps, which
convert glucose to vitamin C. The glucose needed to produce ascorbate
in the liver (in mammals and perching birds) is extracted from
glycogen; ascorbate synthesis is a glycogenolysis-dependent process.
In reptiles and birds the biosynthesis is carried out in the kidneys. Among the animals that have lost the ability to synthesise vitamin C are simians (specifically the suborder haplorrhini, which includes humans), guinea pigs, a number of species of passerine birds (but not all of them), and many (perhaps all) major families of bats. These animals all lack the L-gulonolactone oxidase (GULO) enzyme, which is required in the last step of vitamin C synthesis, because they have a defective form of the gene for the enzyme (Pseudogene ΨGULO). Some of these species (including humans) are able to make do with the lower levels available from their diets by recycling oxidised vitamin C. Most simians consume the vitamin in amounts 10 to 20 times higher than that recommended by governments for humans. This discrepancy constitutes the basis of the controversy on current recommended dietary allowances. It has been noted that the loss of the ability to synthesize ascorbate strikingly parallels the evolutionary loss of the ability to break down uric acid. Uric acid and ascorbate are both strong reducing agents. This has led to the suggestion that in higher primates, uric acid has taken over some of the functions of ascorbate. Ascorbic acid can be oxidized (broken down) in the human body by the enzyme L-ascorbate oxidase. An adult goat, a typical example of a vitamin C-producing animal, will manufacture more than 13 g of vitamin C per day in normal health and the biosynthesis will increase "many fold under stress". Trauma or injury has also been demonstrated to use up large quantities of vitamin C in humans. Some microorganisms such as the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been shown to be able to synthesize vitamin C from simple sugars. |
| Deficiency |
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Scurvy is an avitaminosis resulting from lack of vitamin C, since
without this vitamin, the synthesised collagen is too unstable to
perform its function. Scurvy leads to the formation of liver spots on
the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding from all mucous membranes. The
spots are most abundant on the thighs and legs, and a person with the
ailment looks pale, feels depressed, and is partially immobilized. In
advanced scurvy there are open, suppurating wounds and loss of teeth
and, eventually, death. The human body can store only a certain
amount of vitamin C, and so the body soon depletes itself if fresh
supplies are not consumed. It has been shown that smokers who have diets poor in vitamin C are at a higher risk of lung-borne diseases than those smokers who have higher concentrations of vitamin C in the blood. Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling and Dr. G. C. Willis have asserted that chronic long term low blood levels of vitamin C or Chronic Scurvy is a cause of atherosclerosis. Western societies generally consume sufficient Vitamin C to prevent scurvy. In 2004 a Canadian Community health survey reported that Canadians of 19 years and above have intakes of vitamin C from food of, 133 mg/d for males and 120 mg/d for females, which is higher than the RDA recommendation. |
| History of human understanding |
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The need to include fresh plant food or raw animal flesh in the diet
to prevent disease was known from ancient times. Native peoples
living in marginal areas incorporated this into their medicinal lore.
For example, spruce needles were used in temperate zones in
infusions, or the leaves from species of drought-resistant trees in
desert areas. In 1536, the French explorer Jacques Cartier, exploring
the St. Lawrence River, used the local natives' knowledge to save his
men who were dying of scurvy. He boiled the needles of the arbor
vitae tree to make a tea that was later shown to contain 50 mg of
vitamin C per 100 grams. Throughout history, the benefit of plant food to survive long sea voyages has been occasionally recommended by authorities. John Woodall, the first appointed surgeon to the British East India Company, recommended the preventive and curative use of lemon juice in his book "The Surgeon's Mate", in 1617. The Dutch writer, Johann Bachstrom, in 1734, gave the firm opinion that "scurvy is solely owing to a total abstinence from fresh vegetable food, and greens; which is alone the primary cause of the disease." While the earliest documented case of scurvy was described by Hippocrates around the year 400 BC, the first attempt to give scientific basis for the cause of this disease was by a ship's surgeon in the British Royal Navy, James Lind. Scurvy was common among those with poor access to fresh fruit and vegetables, such as remote, isolated sailors and soldiers. While at sea in May 1747, Lind provided some crew members with two oranges and one lemon per day, in addition to normal rations, while others continued on cider, vinegar, sulfuric acid or seawater, along with their normal rations. In the history of science this is considered to be the first occurrence of a controlled experiment comparing results on two populations of a factor applied to one group only with all other factors the same. The results conclusively showed that citrus fruits prevented the disease. Lind published his work in 1753 in his Treatise on the Scurvy. Citrus fruits were one of the first sources of vitamin C available to ship's surgeons.Lind's work was slow to be noticed, partly because he gave conflicting evidence within the book, and partly because the British admiralty saw care for the well-being of crews as a sign of weakness. In addition, fresh fruit was very expensive to keep on board, whereas boiling it down to juice allowed easy storage but destroyed the vitamin (especially if boiled in copper kettles). Ship captains assumed wrongly that Lind's suggestions didn't work because those juices failed to cure scurvy. It was 1795 before the British navy adopted lemons or lime as standard issue at sea. Limes were more popular as they could be found in British West Indian Colonies, unlike lemons which weren't found in British Dominions, and were therefore more expensive. This practice led to the American use of the nickname "limey" to refer to the British. Captain James Cook had previously demonstrated and proven the principle of the advantages of carrying "Sour krout" on board, by taking his crews to the Hawaiian Islands and beyond without losing any of his men to scurvy. For this otherwise unheard of feat, the British Admiralty awarded him a medal. The name "antiscorbutic" was used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as general term for those foods known to prevent scurvy, even though there was no understanding of the reason for this. These foods included but were not limited to: lemons, limes, and oranges; sauerkraut, cabbage, malt, and portable soup. In 1907, Axel Holst and Theodor FrĂlich, two Norwegian physicians studying beriberi contracted aboard ship's crews in the Norwegian Fishing Fleet, wanted a small test mammal to substitute for the pigeons they used. They fed guinea pigs their test diet, which had earlier produced beriberi in their pigeons, and were surprised when scurvy resulted instead. Until that time scurvy had not been observed in any organism apart from humans, and had been considered an exclusively human disease. |
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