Scurvy lemon juice

The first clues to the treatment of scurvy occurred in 1535—1536 when Jacques Cartier, on advice from Newfoundland Indians, fed his crew an extract from spmce tree needles to cure an epidemic. Various physicians were recommending the use of citms fmits to cure scurvy in the mid-sixteenth century. Two hundred years later, in 1753, it was proved by Dr. James Lind, in his famous clinical experiment, that scurvy was associated with diet and caused by lack of fresh vegetables. He also demonstrated that oranges and lemons were the most effective cure against this disease. In 1753, inM Treatise on the Scurvy[ Lind pubhshed his results and recommendations (7). Eorty-two years later, in 1795, the British Navy included lemon juice in seamen s diets, resulting in the familiar nickname "limeys" for British seamen. Evidence has shown that even with undefined scorbutic symptoms, vitamin C levels can be low, and can cause marked diminution in resistance to infections and slow healing of wounds. 

While it was known that lime or lemon juice would prevent scurvy the active ingredient remained elusive. Experiments were conducted using dilute hydrochloric acid as a substitute. Predictably, they did not work. 

John Hunter (1768) noted that scurvy was caused by the lack of vitamin C. He prescribed the consumption of lemon juice to treat scurvy. 

In 1795 the British admiralty finally mandated a ration of concentrated lime or lemon juice for all British sailors (hence the name limeys ). Scurvy continued to be a problem in some other parts of the world until 1932, when Hungarian scientist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, and W. A. Waugh and C. G. King at the University of Pittsburgh, isolated and synthesized ascorbic acid. 

Acidum cetum (citric acid) Used in a variety of other preparations (e.g., FerrI et Quinis Citras, etc.). Believed to be of some value in scurvy (though inferior to lemon juice). 

One category of disease that was largely unreported because it was not well understood at the time was that caused by various nutritional deficiencies. Both sides recognized some correlation between diet and certain diseases—that had been demonstrated by British naval surgeon James Lind with the introduction of orange and lemon juice to prevent scurvy in 1753—but the role of vitamins would not be... 

His Treatise of the Scurvy published in 1753 is the first example of a controlled clinical trial experiment. In his treatise, Lind gave a thorough review of other authors who had written on scurvy along with a careful clinical description of the condition. It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that the British navy finally had its sailors drink a daily portion of lime or lemon juice to prevent scurvy. 

It seems likely that the fact that consumption of citrus fruits could cure scurvy was known or suggested very early on. Winslow and Duran-Reynals have quoted a thirteenth century Spanish medical tract recommending orange and lemon juice as being beneficial to scurvy sufferers. Similar statements are to be found over the next four centuries, but were not widely available, nor does there appear to have been a custom of widely reading the works of medical experts elsewhere in the world, even when they were available. It took an incredibly long time for something which seems obvious today to become accepted by the medical establishment. 

In 1932, Charles Glen King and W. A. Waugh, at the University of Pittsburgh, isolated from lemon juice a crystalline material that possessed antiscorbutic activity in guinea pigs this marked the discovery of vitamin C, a deficiency of vv ich caused the centuries-old scourge of scurvy. 

Ships that carried beer tended to be less affected than those that carried water and spirits. Presumably, the beer contained some vitamin C, possibly from the habit of dry hopping , i.e. adding a few hop cones to each barrel. Eventually, it was found that lemon or lime juice every day could prevent scurvy. The admiralty waited fifty years before they applied the discovery and then insisted that all British ships carried lime juice. 

Although by no means generally accepted in Britain, it is clear that the notion that fruit juices helped in the treatment of scurvy was gradually becoming better known. The journal of Sir James Lancaster s voyage to Sumatra in 1601 is quite unequivocal about the value of oranges and lemons ... 

Students could investigate the vitamin C deficiency disease scurvy and why British sailors got the nickname Limeys (this arose when the Royal Navy started issuing a daily dose of lemon or lime juice to sailors to prevent scurvy). 

Vitamins are compounds that our bodies require for normal functioning and must be obtained from food. An inadequate intake of certain vitamins causes specific diseases. This phenomenon had been observed long before the exact role of vitamins was understood. For example, sailors who remained at sea for extended periods would suffer from a disease called scurvy, characterized by the loss of teeth, swollen limbs, and bruising. If left untreated, the disease would be fatal. In 1747, a British naval physician named James Lind demonstrated that the effects of scurvy could be reversed by eating oranges and lemons. It was recognized that oranges and lemons must contain some "factor" that our bodies require, and lime juice became a normal part of a sailor s diet. For this reason, British sailors were called "Limeys."... 

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