Editing Vitamin C (section)

=== Discovery ===
{{Further|Vitamin#History}}

Vitamin C was discovered in 1912, isolated in 1928 and synthesized in 1933, making it the first vitamin to be synthesized.<ref name=Squires>{{cite book |vauthors=Squires VR |title=The role of food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries in human nutrition - Volume IV |date=2011 |publisher=EOLSS Publications |isbn=978-1-84826-195-2 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJWoCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 |access-date=September 17, 2017 |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111085247/https://books.google.com/books?id=VJWoCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 |url-status=live }}</ref> Shortly thereafter [[Tadeus Reichstein]] succeeded in synthesizing the vitamin in bulk by what is now called the [[Reichstein process]].<ref name="pmid356548">{{cite book | vauthors = Stacey M, Manners DJ | title = Advances in carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry | chapter = Edmund Langley Hirst | volume = 35 | pages = 1–29 | year = 1978 | pmid = 356548 | doi = 10.1016/S0065-2318(08)60217-6 | isbn = 978-0-12-007235-4 }}</ref> This made possible the inexpensive mass-production of vitamin C. In 1934, [[Hoffmann–La Roche]] bought the Reichstein process patent, trademarked synthetic vitamin C under the brand name [[Redoxon]], and began to market it as a dietary supplement.<ref name=Roche1934>{{cite web|url=http://www.trademarkia.com/redoxon-71350953.html|title=Redoxon trademark information by Hoffman-la Roche, Inc. (1934)|access-date=December 25, 2017|archive-date=November 16, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116044212/https://www.trademarkia.com/redoxon-71350953.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Wang-2016">{{cite book | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=WgamCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA161 | chapter = Industrial fermentation of Vitamin C | vauthors = Wang W, Xu H | year = 2016 | page = 161 | title = Industrial biotechnology of vitamins, biopigments, and antioxidants | veditors = Vandamme EJ, Revuelta JI | publisher = Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. | isbn = 978-3-527-33734-7 }}</ref>

In 1907, a laboratory animal model which would help to identify the antiscorbutic factor was [[Serendipity|serendipitously]] discovered by the Norwegian physicians [[Axel Holst]] and [[Theodor Frølich]], who when studying shipboard [[beriberi]], fed [[guinea pig]]s their test diet of grains and flour and were surprised when scurvy resulted instead of beriberi. Unknown at that time, this species did not make its own vitamin C (being a [[caviomorph]]), whereas mice and rats do.<ref name="pmid12555613">{{cite journal | vauthors = Norum KR, Grav HJ | title = [Axel Holst and Theodor Frolich--pioneers in the combat of scurvy] | language = no | journal = Tidsskrift for den Norske Laegeforening | volume = 122 | issue = 17 | pages = 1686–7 | date = June 2002 | pmid = 12555613 }}</ref> In 1912, the [[Poland|Polish]] biochemist [[Casimir Funk]] developed the concept of [[vitamin]]s. One of these was thought to be the anti-scorbutic factor. In 1928, this was referred to as "water-soluble C", although its chemical structure had not been determined.<ref name="pmid9105273">{{cite journal | vauthors = Rosenfeld L | title = Vitamine--vitamin. The early years of discovery | journal = Clinical Chemistry | volume = 43 | issue = 4 | pages = 680–5 | date = April 1997 | doi = 10.1093/clinchem/43.4.680 | pmid = 9105273 | doi-access = free | title-link = doi }}</ref>

[[File:Albert Szent-Györgyi.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Albert Szent-Györgyi]], pictured here in 1948, was awarded the 1937 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize in Medicine]] "for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes, with special reference to vitamin{{nbsp}}C and the catalysis of fumaric acid".<ref name="pmid19239412"/>|alt=Albert Szent-Györgyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in part for his research on vitamin C]]

From 1928 to 1932, [[Albert Szent-Györgyi]] and Joseph L. Svirbely's Hungarian team, and [[Charles Glen King]]'s American team, identified the anti-scorbutic factor. Szent-Györgyi isolated hexuronic acid from animal adrenal glands, and suspected it to be the antiscorbutic factor.<ref name="pmid16744896">{{cite journal | vauthors = Svirbely JL, Szent-Györgyi A | title = The chemical nature of vitamin C | journal = The Biochemical Journal | volume = 26 | issue = 3 | pages = 865–70 | year = 1932 | pmid = 16744896 | pmc = 1260981 | doi = 10.1126/science.75.1944.357-a | bibcode = 1932Sci....75..357K }}</ref> In late 1931, Szent-Györgyi gave Svirbely the last of his adrenal-derived hexuronic acid with the suggestion that it might be the anti-scorbutic factor. By the spring of 1932, King's laboratory had proven this, but published the result without giving Szent-Györgyi credit for it. This led to a bitter dispute over priority.<ref name="pmid16744896" /> In 1933, [[Walter Norman Haworth]] chemically identified the vitamin as {{sm|l}}-hexuronic acid, proving this by synthesis in 1933.<ref name="pmid11963399">{{cite journal | vauthors = Juhász-Nagy S | title = [Albert Szent-Györgyi--biography of a free genius] | language = hu | journal = Orvosi Hetilap | volume = 143 | issue = 12 | pages = 611–4 | date = March 2002 | pmid = 11963399 }}</ref><ref name="pmid4589872">{{cite journal | vauthors = Kenéz J | title = [Eventful life of a scientist. 80th birthday of Nobel prize winner Albert Szent-Györgyi] | language = de | journal = Munchener Medizinische Wochenschrift | volume = 115 | issue = 51 | pages = 2324–6 | date = December 1973 | pmid = 4589872 }}</ref><ref name="pmid4612454">{{cite journal | vauthors = Szállási A | title = [2 interesting early articles by Albert Szent-Györgyi] | language = hu | journal = Orvosi Hetilap | volume = 115 | issue = 52 | pages = 3118–9 | date = December 1974 | pmid = 4612454 }}</ref><ref name="url_NLM_Profiles_Szent-Gyorgyi">{{cite web |url=http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/WG/Views/Exhibit/narrative/szeged.html |title=The Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Papers: Szeged, 1931-1947: Vitamin C, Muscles, and WWII |work=Profiles in Science |publisher=United States National Library of Medicine |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090505232208/http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/WG/Views/Exhibit/narrative/szeged.html |archive-date=May 5, 2009 }}</ref> Haworth and Szent-Györgyi proposed that L-hexuronic acid be named a-scorbic acid, and chemically {{sm|l}}-ascorbic acid, in honor of its activity against scurvy.<ref name="url_NLM_Profiles_Szent-Gyorgyi"/><ref name=Squires /> The term's etymology is from Latin, "a-" meaning away, or off from, while -scorbic is from Medieval Latin ''scorbuticus'' (pertaining to scurvy), cognate with Old Norse ''skyrbjugr'', French ''scorbut'', Dutch ''scheurbuik'' and Low German ''scharbock''.<ref name="Online Entymology Dictionary-2015">{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/scurvy |title=Scurvy |publisher=Online Entymology Dictionary |access-date=November 19, 2017 |archive-date=December 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201215135611/https://www.etymonline.com/word/scurvy |url-status=live }}</ref> Partly for this discovery, Szent-Györgyi was awarded the 1937 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Nobel Prize in Medicine]],<ref name="pmid19239412">{{cite journal | vauthors = Zetterström R | title = Nobel Prize 1937 to Albert von Szent-Györgyi: identification of vitamin C as the anti-scorbutic factor | journal = Acta Paediatrica | volume = 98 | issue = 5 | pages = 915–19 | date = May 2009 | pmid = 19239412 | doi = 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2009.01239.x | s2cid = 11077461 }}</ref> and Haworth shared that year's [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].<ref name="pmid15416703">{{cite journal |vauthors=Hirst EL |title=Sir Norman Haworth |journal=Nature |volume=165 |issue=4198 |pages=587 |date=April 1950 |pmid=15416703 |doi=10.1038/165587a0 |bibcode=1950Natur.165..587H |url=}}</ref>

In 1957, J. J. Burns showed that some mammals are susceptible to scurvy as their [[liver]] does not produce the [[enzyme]] [[L-gulonolactone oxidase|{{sm|l}}-gulonolactone oxidase]], the last of the chain of four enzymes that synthesize vitamin C.<ref name="pmid13385237">{{cite journal | vauthors = Burns JJ, Evans C | title = The synthesis of L-ascorbic acid in the rat from D-glucuronolactone and L-gulonolactone | journal = The Journal of Biological Chemistry | volume = 223 | issue = 2 | pages = 897–905 | date = December 1956 | doi = 10.1016/S0021-9258(18)65088-4 | pmid = 13385237 | url = https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(18)65088-4/pdf | doi-access = free | title-link = doi | format = PDF | access-date = December 3, 2022 | archive-date = December 3, 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221203231846/https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(18)65088-4/pdf | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="pmid13380431">{{cite journal | vauthors = Burns JJ, Moltz A, Peyser P | title = Missing step in guinea pigs required for the biosynthesis of L-ascorbic acid | journal = Science | volume = 124 | issue = 3232 | pages = 1148–9 | date = December 1956 | pmid = 13380431 | doi = 10.1126/science.124.3232.1148-a | bibcode = 1956Sci...124.1148B }}</ref> American biochemist [[Irwin Stone]] was the first to exploit vitamin C for its food preservative properties. He later developed the idea that humans possess a mutated form of the {{sm|l}}-gulonolactone oxidase coding gene.<ref name="pmid1672383">{{cite journal | vauthors = Henson DE, Block G, Levine M | title = Ascorbic acid: biologic functions and relation to cancer | journal = Journal of the National Cancer Institute | volume = 83 | issue = 8 | pages = 547–50 | date = April 1991 | pmid = 1672383 | doi = 10.1093/jnci/83.8.547 | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1234351 | access-date = March 18, 2020 | archive-date = December 25, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201225062602/https://zenodo.org/record/1234351 | url-status = live | doi-access = free | title-link = doi }}</ref>
Stone introduced Linus Pauling to the theory that humans needed to consume vitamin C in quantities far higher than what was considered a recommended daily intake in order to optimize health.<ref name=IrwinStone>{{cite web |url=http://www.orthomolecular.org/history/index.shtml |title=Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of fame - Irwin Stone, Ph.D. | vauthors = Saul A |date= |website=Orthomolecular Organization |access-date=December 25, 2023 |archive-date=August 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809145751/http://www.orthomolecular.org/history/index.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2008, researchers discovered that in humans and other primates the [[red blood cell]]s have evolved a mechanism to more efficiently utilize the vitamin C present in the body by recycling oxidized {{sm|l}}-dehydroascorbic acid (DHA) back into ascorbic acid for reuse by the body. The mechanism was not found to be present in mammals that synthesize their own vitamin C.<ref name="pmid18358815">{{cite journal | vauthors = Montel-Hagen A, Kinet S, Manel N, Mongellaz C, Prohaska R, Battini JL, Delaunay J, Sitbon M, Taylor N |s2cid = 18128118 |title = Erythrocyte Glut1 triggers dehydroascorbic acid uptake in mammals unable to synthesize vitamin C |journal = Cell |volume = 132 |issue = 6 |pages = 1039–48 |date = March 2008 |pmid = 18358815 |doi = 10.1016/j.cell.2008.01.042| doi-access =  | title-link = doi }}</ref>