Vitamin C
Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is an antioxidant. It is important not just for the body’s immune system, but also for building tissue and for the absorption of iron into our blood. Fruit, vegetables and potatoes contain large quantities of vitamin C.
Vitamin C deficiency lowers our resistance, our wounds take longer to heal, and it can even lead to scurvy.
Scurvy is a disease caused by a long-term vitamin C deficiency. In the age of the great voyages of discovery, it was one of the main causes of death on sailing ships that made long-distance trading voyages.
Christopher Columbus, the great explorer, took barrels of sauerkraut on his travels to protect his crew from this deadly disease. But it was not until 1747 that it was proved that fresh fruit and vegetables could cure and prevent scurvy. Vitamin C itself was discovered by the Hungarian biochemist Albert Szent-Györgyi, who was affiliated to the University of Groningen for a time. This discovery earned him the Nobel Prize in 1937| Last modified: | 12 April 2021 1.22 p.m. |
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