Maybe you know that people can't live without food and water. But you must be careful when eating and drinking water, otherwise it will be unhealthy and even have some symptoms. What are you eating? -energy, some trace elements needed by the human body, etc. , all know vitamins. If they are lacking, they will cause some diseases. Vitamins can not only maintain the normal life function of human body, but also have great benefits to human health. For example, vitamin C has antioxidant effect, which can eliminate free radicals in human body, thus reducing the incidence of cancer. All these are well known, let alone, but how many people know that some trace elements are more indispensable to the human body?
Effects of selenium on human body: Since French scientist Schwartz first proved that selenium has animal nutrition function in May 1957, after nearly 50 years of research, human beings have come to the conclusion that selenium has at least the following functions:
1, preventing and inhibiting human cancer, greatly reducing the side effects caused by radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer patients, and obviously relieving the severe pain of patients with advanced cancer;
2. Selenium can protect the liver, make the structure of liver cells complete, improve the disease resistance of the liver itself, and remove hepatitis B virus.
3. Selenium can ensure the normal metabolism of myocardial cells, stabilize the integrity of cell membrane structure, protect vascular endothelial cells and prevent arteriosclerosis.
4. It is found that selenium deficiency often leads to double pathological changes of myocardium and pancreas, and it is confirmed that pancreas is also a sensitive organ of selenium deficiency, and selenium can also prevent and treat diabetic complications.
5. Selenium is a natural antidote, which can alleviate the poisoning caused by various heavy metal pollution. Therefore, selenium can relieve the pressure on the liver, protect the liver and protect the pancreas to a great extent;
6. Selenium can promote gastrointestinal function, and selenium supplementation can cure digestive tract diseases such as gastritis, enteritis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer;
7. Selenium has a very important influence on children's growth and development. Selenium supplementation can improve the growth and development of malnourished children, prevent sudden infant death syndrome and enhance children's physique.
8. It can obviously reduce the harm of smoking to human body, which is beneficial to people's health and longevity. Prevention and treatment of Kaschin-Beck disease;
9. Selenium has a significant therapeutic effect on rheumatic joint diseases.
List of recommended standards of experts for disease prevention and quantitative selenium supplementation
The consumption of people who need selenium supplement (μ g/day).
Cancer patients 200-400 can inhibit the growth of cancer cells, reduce the toxic and side effects of anticancer drugs, and relieve severe pain in the late stage.
300-400 diabetic patients gradually reduce their dependence on hypoglycemic agents to prevent complications.
Patients with liver disease and kidney disease 250-350 protect liver cells, improve the body's autoimmune function and significantly reduce the incidence of liver cancer.
Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular patients 300-250 can protect the hypoxic heart and brain cells and reduce the area of myocardial infarction; Reduce blood viscosity, feed thrombosis and promote the recovery of injury after embolization.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer patients can reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and anticancer drugs, increase appetite and protect white blood cells.
100-200 can improve immunity, repair damaged cells, restore their normal functions and enhance self-healing ability.
Pregnant women and lactating women 50- 100 can improve immunity, prevent diseases and ensure selenium intake of adults, fetuses and lactating children.
Growing children 25-50 can promote children's growth and development, improve malnutrition, protect eyesight, improve disease resistance and eliminate lead and mercury in the body.
100-200, who is engaged in toxic and harmful work, removes toxic and harmful substances from the body, repairs damage and forms cell antioxidant protection.
Using mobile phone computer 50- 100 can reduce radiation damage and protect spleen and liver.
Traffic police and drivers 100-200 eliminate the pollution of tail gas dust to human body, reduce the toxicity of lead accumulation, and form cell antioxidant protection.
Long-term smokers 100 can clean up toxins, repair injuries, protect respiratory system, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and enhance immune function.
Regular drinkers 100 can relieve alcoholism, relieve drunkenness and protect the liver.
Sub-health population 50- 100 can relieve symptoms such as listlessness, fatigue, general malaise and endocrine disorders.
Sources of Selenium: People can get selenium from drinking water and food. Ming Lu, former vice minister of agriculture, stressed that 72% of China's areas are seriously deficient in selenium, and these areas are the main commodity grain producing areas in China. It is conceivable that the selenium deficiency population in China is not limited to 72%. The selenium content in seawater is 4-6 μ g/L, and that in river water is 0.5- 10 μ g/L..
The general order of selenium content in food from high to low is: animal viscera >; Seafood > fish >; Eggs >; Meat >; Vegetables > Fruit, Egg Yolk > protein. The selenium content of mushrooms and garlic in vegetables is relatively high. Seafood is rich in selenium, but the utilization rate of selenium is low. Because seafood often contains environmental pollutants such as methylmercury, a considerable amount of selenium must be used to detoxify mercury, so the use of selenium in other aspects naturally decreases.
From the above, it is not difficult to see how important selenium is to the human body, and it can also let us know more clearly whether this precious element is too scarce in our body. This is nothing, but the following is more important:
It is an acknowledged fact that selenium can prevent and treat cancer! In recent years, China has paid more and more attention to the importance of selenium to human health, but there is a serious shortage of effective selenium in China! Selenium can be divided into inorganic and organic. The former is poisonous and forbidden to use, and the latter is also divided into several types. Selenium in protein has the highest absorption rate. Selenium must combine with protein to form an element with high absorption rate, while selenium in protein is an organic selenium that can be well absorbed and utilized.
Now we know why there is not enough selenium in our bodies. The reason is simple: there is no organic selenium around us that can be used by the human body. Tianjin Baoheng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. mainly develops and studies selenium products, which is rare in China and brings good news to everyone, especially sub-healthy people and some patients.
The human body needs two vitamins:
1. Fat-soluble vitamins: including vitamins A, D, E and K.
2. Water-soluble vitamins: including vitamin B (B 1, B2, B6, B 12), vitamin C, biotin, folic acid, nicotinamide and pantothenic acid.
Vitamin b
Vitamin B, also known as vitamin B, is a general term for certain vitamins, which often come from the same food source, such as yeast. Vitamin B was once considered as an organic compound with a single structure like vitamin C, but later research proved that it is actually a group of compounds with different structures, so its members have independent names, such as vitamin B 1, and vitamin B is called a general term, sometimes called vitamin B family, vitamin B heterozygote or vitamin B complex family.
Vitamin B is a water-soluble vitamin, which synergistically regulates metabolism, maintains the health of skin and muscles, improves the functions of immune system and nervous system, and promotes cell growth and division (including promoting the production of red blood cells and preventing anemia).
Vitamin B needed by human beings
Chemical names commonly used in vitamin names, other commonly used nicknames and descriptions.
Vitamin B 1 thiamine
Vitamin B2 riboflavin vitamin G
Vitamin B3 nicotinic acid Vitamin PP, nicotinic acid, nicotinic acid
Calcium pantothenate pantothenate
Vitamin B6 pyridoxine includes pyridoxine, pyridoxal and pyridoxamine.
Vitamin B7, biotin, vitamin h and coenzyme r
Vitamin B9, pteroyl glutamic acid, folic acid, vitamin M, leaf essence.
Vitamin B 12 cobalamin cyanocobalamin and coenzyme B 12
In addition, choline and inositol, which belong to vitamin B group, are usually classified as essential vitamins for human beings.
Other vitamin b
Some substances are also called vitamin B, but please note that some are nicknames of the above-mentioned essential vitamins for human beings, and some are not essential vitamins for human beings, or even nutrients:
Commonly known as chemical name description
Vitamin B4 adenine
Vitamin B7* ibuprofen propionate is the trade name of "ibuprofen", which is usually called vitamin I.
Vitamin B8 adenine nucleotide
Vitamin B 10 is usually a mixture of folic acid and other B vitamins, also known as vitamin R.
Vitamin B 1 1 salicylic acid is also called vitamin S.
Vitamin B 13 is usually folic acid or orotic acid (4- hydroxyuracil).
A mixture of vitamin B 14, vitamin B 10 and vitamin B 1 1.
Vitamin B 15 pantothenic acid is called pantothenic acid.
Vitamin B 16
Vitamin B 17 amygdalin is also called amygdalin or amygdalin.
Vitamin B22 is considered as a component of aloe extract.
Another name for vitamin B-c is vitamin B9
Another name for vitamin B-h cyclohexanol inositol
Another name for vitamin B-t trimethyl hydroxybutyryl betaine carnitine
Another name for vitamin B-w biotin.
Vitamin B-x p-aminobenzoic acid
The main food sources of vitamin B family are similar, mainly yeast, grain, animal liver and so on.
The role of vitamin B family
There are more than twelve kinds of vitamin B, and nine of them are recognized by the world, all of which are water-soluble vitamins. They only stay in the body for a few hours and must be replenished every day. B group is an indispensable nutrient for all human tissues and the key to the release of energy from food. They are all coenzymes, which participate in the metabolism of sugar, protein and fat in the body, so they belong to one family.
All vitamin B must play a role at the same time, which is called VB fusion. When a certain VB is ingested alone, due to the increase of cell activity, the demand for other VBs increases, so the functions of various VBs are complementary, which is the so-called "Kanekin's Law". Dr Roger William pointed out that all cells have exactly the same demand for vitamin B.
The most common members of vitamin B group are B 1, B2, B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6, B 1 1 (folic acid) and B 12 (cobalamin). Their functions are described below.
1. is the key substance in sugar metabolism. The muscles and nerves of the body need energy mainly provided by sugar, so they are the most vulnerable. Sufficient VB and energetic nerve cells can relieve anxiety and tension and increase the tolerance to noise; On the contrary, it will lead to a decline in the ability to cope with stress and even cause neuritis.
Cardiac function is affected by pyruvate and lactate deposition. Insufficient gastrointestinal energy, weak peristalsis, weakened digestive function, constipation.
Severe cases cause beriberi. Its evolution process is: weakness-fatigue-irritability, depression-constipation-neuritis-heartache-heart failure-edema. 1897 Dutch doctors found that eating polished rice can cause beri, mainly because of the lack of vitamin B 1, so B 1 is also called anti-beriberi vitamin.
2. It is closely related to the metabolism of sugar, protein and fat. Maintain and improve the health of epithelial tissues, such as epithelial tissues of eyes and mucosal tissues of digestive tract. Severe deficiency will lead to visual fatigue, corneal congestion, angular stomatitis and so on. When angular stomatitis occurs, doctors often ask patients to take riboflavin, which is B2.
3. Bad fat metabolism can cause seborrheic dermatitis, acne and acne, and vitamin B supplementation has a good effect.
4. Lack of B family, even gastrointestinal peristalsis, poor secretion of digestive juice, leading to indigestion, constipation, bad breath, and strange smell in stool.
5.B3 is a coenzyme of dehydrogenase in vivo and plays an important role in the metabolism of carbohydrate, protein and fat. When it is seriously deficient, it will cause pathological changes of nerves, skin and digestive tract, which is called leprosy, also known as stereoscopic disease, manifested as dermatitis, diarrhea and dementia.
6. Help body tissues to use oxygen, promote oxygen acquisition of skin, nails and hair tissues, and eliminate or improve dandruff.
7. Eliminate alcohol, nicotine and other toxins, relieve headache and migraine, and protect the liver.
8. The lack of b11and B 12 will affect the synthesis of thymine and purine. , and cause DNA synthesis disorder. Eventually, the nucleus of red blood cells is immature, resulting in invalid red blood cells, which is megaloblastic anemia.
9. Folic acid deficiency in the first three months of pregnancy will lead to fetal neural tube malformation, thus increasing the incidence of schizencephaly and anencephaly.
vitamin C
Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin.
Chinese name: vitamin C, ascorbic acid
nature
Molecular formula: C6H8O6；; Molecular weight:176.12u; Si Nuo. : 50-8 1-7; Acidity, oxidative decomposition in solution.
physical features
Appearance: colorless crystal; Melting point:190-192℃; Boiling point: (none); Maximum ultraviolet absorption: 245nm；; Fluorescence spectrum: excitation wavelength-no nm, fluorescence wavelength-no nm;
Vitamin characteristics
Solubility: water-soluble vitamins; Recommended intake: 5 grams per day; Maximum intake: the amount that causes diarrhea;
Lack of symptoms: scurvy; Excessive symptoms: diarrhea; Main food sources: citrus fruits and vegetables.
Main physiological functions of vitamin c
1, promoting the biosynthesis of collagen. Conducive to faster healing of tissue wounds;
2, promote the metabolism of tyrosine and tryptophan in amino acids, and prolong the life of the body.
3. Improve the utilization rate of iron, calcium and folic acid.
4. Improve the metabolism of fat and lipids, especially cholesterol, and prevent cardiovascular diseases.
5. Promote the growth of teeth and bones and prevent gum bleeding. ;
6, enhance the body's anti-stress ability and immunity to the external environment.
drug effect
Vitamin C participates in many reactions in the body, such as redox process, and plays an important role in biological redox and cell respiration. From the tissue level, the main function of vitamin C is related to the synthesis of intercellular substance. Including collagen, the matrix of teeth and bones, and the connection between capillary endothelial cells. Therefore, when vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy, it is accompanied by collagen synthesis defect, which is characterized by difficult wound healing, tooth formation disorder, capillary injury causing a large number of blood stasis points, and blood stasis points fuse to form ecchymosis.
Vitamin C and scurvy have a long history. Hippocrates was the first person to mention scurvy. He described the soldiers' gums festering and their teeth falling off. . . ; Early sea travel attracted people's attention to scurvy. Three or four months after the fleet left the port, the crew often suffered from scurvy, and people began to find that this was due to the lack of fresh vegetables and fruits in sea travel. 1932, British military doctors isolated crystal substances with scurvy resistance from lemon juice. 1933, Swiss scientists synthesized vitamin c, also known as ascorbic acid. Modern research shows that VC is very important to human health;
1. The synthesis of collagen needs the participation of vitamin C, so without VC, collagen can't be synthesized normally, which leads to the disorder of cell connection. The human body is composed of cells, which are connected by intercellular substance, and the key component of intercellular substance is collagen. Collagen accounts for 1/3 of the protein of the body, which generates connective tissue and constitutes the bones of the body. Such as bones, blood vessels and ligaments. , determine the elasticity of the skin, protect the brain, and contribute to the healing of human trauma.
2. scurvy. The strength of vascular wall has a great relationship with VC. Microvessel is the smallest of all blood vessels, and its wall may be only one cell thick. Its strength and elasticity are determined by collagen, which is responsible for connecting cells and has the function of cement. When VC is insufficient in the body, microvessels are easy to rupture and blood flows to adjacent tissues. When this happens on the skin surface, it will produce congestion and cyanosis; When it happens in the body, it can cause pain and joint swelling. In severe cases, bleeding of stomach, intestine, nose, kidney and periosteum may occur, and even death may occur.
3. Gingival atrophy and bleeding. A healthy chewing gum tightly wraps every tooth. Gingiva is soft tissue, which is prone to atrophy and bleeding when lacking protein, calcium and VC.
4. Prevent arteriosclerosis. It can promote the excretion of cholesterol, prevent cholesterol from depositing on the inner wall of arteries, and even dissolve the deposited atherosclerotic plaques.
5. It is a strong water-soluble antioxidant. It can protect other antioxidants, such as vitamin A, vitamin E, unsaturated fatty acids, etc., and prevent free radicals from harming human body.
6. Treat anemia. It can reduce trivalent iron which is difficult to be absorbed and utilized into ferrous iron, promote the absorption of iron by meridians, improve the utilization rate of iron by liver, and help to treat iron deficiency anemia.
7. Prevent cancer. Rich collagen helps to prevent cancer cells from spreading; The antioxidant effect of VC can resist the damage of free radicals to cells and prevent cell variation; Prevent nitrite and secondary amine from forming strong carcinogen nitrosamine. Someone once dissected a patient who died of cancer and found that the VC content in the patient was almost zero.
8. Protect cells, detoxify and protect liver. In human life activities, it is very important to ensure the integrity and normal metabolism of cells. Therefore, glutathione and enzymes play an important role.
Glutathione is a short peptide composed of glutamic acid, cystine and glycine, which has redox effect in the body. It exists in two forms, namely oxidation type and reduction type, and reduction type plays an important role in ensuring the integrity of cell membrane. VC is a strong antioxidant, which reduces oxidized glutathione to reduced glutathione through its own oxidation, thus playing an antioxidant role.
Enzymes are catalysts for biochemical reactions, and some enzymes need free sulfhydryl (-SH) to keep their activity. VC can reduce disulfide bond (-S-S) to -SH, thus improving the activity of related enzymes and playing an antioxidant role.
As can be seen from the above, as long as VC is sufficient, VC, glutathione and -SH will form a powerful combination of anti-oxidation, scavenging free radicals, preventing lipid peroxidation and toxic effects of certain chemicals, and protecting the detoxification ability of the liver and the normal metabolism of cells.
9. Improve human immunity.
White blood cells are rich in VC, and when the body is infected, the VC in white blood cells decreases sharply. VC can enhance the chemotaxis and deformability of neutrophils and improve their bactericidal ability.
Promote the generation of lymphocytes and improve the body's ability to identify and kill foreign cells and malignant cells.
Participate in the synthesis of immunoglobulin.
Improve the activity of complement esterase in CI and increase the production of complement CI.
Promote the production of interferon, interfere with the transcription of virus mRNA, and inhibit the proliferation of virus.
10. Improve the body's emergency response ability. Abnormal stimuli to the human body, such as severe pain, cold, lack of oxygen, strong mental stimulation, etc., will trigger a state of tension against abnormal stimuli. This state is accompanied by a series of organisms, including sympathetic nerve excitement, adrenal medulla and increased secretion of corticosteroids. Adrenaline and norepinephrine secreted by adrenal medulla are converted from tyrosine, which requires VC.
Vitamin C entering the human body is rapidly distributed in 20 tissues and organs. Under normal circumstances, the human vitamin C bank is 1500 mg. Most of the excess is excreted with urine, and a small part is excreted with stool, sweat and respiratory tract. But in the case of infection, the human body needs 20-40 times as much as usual, and all drugs will destroy VC in the body. Therefore, it is very beneficial to supplement VC when the human body is in a state. Davis, a famous American nutritionist, asked doctors who had studied nutrition whether VC should be taken as a routine medicine at home in order to take it at the early stage of any disease. Most doctors say, "It's definitely much safer than any aspirin", and it's better to use enough doses for the first time than to use small doses continuously.
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin (its aqueous solution is acidic), and its chemical formula is C6H8O6. Without this vitamin C, people are prone to septicemia, so vitamin C is also called ascorbic acid. Vitamin C is easily oxidized by oxygen in the air. Fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy products contain vitamin C. For example, the content of vitamin C in fresh orange juice is about 500 mg/L.
Vitamin c has the function of preventing diseases.
A survey shows that slightly increasing the intake of some fruits and vegetables every day may play a role in preventing diseases.
Vitamin c may have a protective effect on some chronic diseases. However, from the prospective research results, the relationship between vitamin C and cardiovascular disease or cancer is not consistent. In order to evaluate the relationship between plasma vitamin C level and mortality of various causes (cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease and cancer), Khaw et al. of the School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge University, UK conducted a four-year prospective survey on 19496 adults aged 45-79. (The Lancet 200 1, 357∶657)
The included subjects filled out the health and lifestyle questionnaire and received physical examination. The researchers tracked the cause of death for four years. These people were grouped according to sex-specific plasma vitamin C5 quantile. Cox proportional hazard model is used to determine the effects of vitamin C and other risk factors on mortality.
The results showed that the concentration of vitamin C in plasma was negatively correlated with the mortality of both sexes caused by various reasons, including cardiovascular diseases and ischemic heart diseases. The risk of death in the quintile with the highest vitamin C content is half that in the quintile with the lowest vitamin C content (P
Discover history
Scurvy has been known for hundreds of years, but it was not confirmed until 19 1 1 year that it was caused by nutritional deficiency. In the18th century, scurvy was very common among ocean-going sailors, but it was also popular among army soldiers trapped for a long time, communities lacking food for a long time, besieged cities, prisoners and labor camps. For example, gold miners in California 140 years ago and gold miners in Alaska 90 years ago all had a large number of cases of scurvy.
At the beginning of scurvy, the symptoms are weakness of limbs, mental decline, fidgeting, fatigue in doing any work, and red and swollen skin. The patient felt muscle pain and depression. Then his face was swollen, his gums bled, his teeth fell out, and he had bad breath. Subcutaneous hemorrhage looks like a serious injury. Finally, he died of severe fatigue, diarrhea, dyspnea, fracture, lung or renal failure. In the early years, sailors died of scurvy, because their food during the voyage was bread and bacon, which contained almost no vitamin C.
From1July 9, 497 to1May 30, 498, the Portuguese navigator vasco da gama discovered the route that bypassed Africa and reached India. Among his 160 crew members, 100 people died of scurvy.
15 19, an ocean-going fleet led by Portuguese navigator Magellan sailed from the east coast of South America to the Pacific Ocean. Three months later, some crew members had broken gums, some had nosebleeds and some were weak. When the ship arrived at its destination, only 35 of the original 200 people survived, and people could not find out why.
1536, French explorer Jacques Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence River and went upstream to Quebec for the winter. Twenty-four people in the expedition died of scurvy, and many others were seriously ill. An Indian taught them to drink a kind of tea soaked in the leaves of Thuja occidentalis and cured them. Later, it was found that the leaves of this tree contained 50 mg of vitamin C per100g.
General Hernando Cortes, the Spanish conqueror of Mexico, did not continue to occupy California headquarters after 1536 occupied California, because most sailors suffered from scurvy and returned to the division. 1577, a Spanish galleon drifted off the coast of the sargasso sea, and all the crew died of scurvy.
Comparing with the records of Zheng He's many voyages to the West led by the Ming Dynasty in China in the 0 ~ (th) century, it is not found that a large number of crew members died of scurvy due to long voyage, which is related to the fruits and vegetables brought by Zheng He's fleet at that time. It can also be seen that the substance in vegetables and fruits (later found to be vitamin C) is of great help to the prevention and treatment of scurvy.
1734, on a seagoing ship bound for Greenland, a crew member suffered from severe scurvy. At that time, the disease could not be cured, and other crew members had to abandon him on a desert island. When he woke up to feed his hunger with weeds, his scurvy was cured in a few days. Scurvy like this once claimed the lives of thousands of sailors.
1In the winter of 740, 96/kloc-0 sailors led by British Admiral george anson went on an expedition in six ships. In June, when 174 1 arrived in juan fernandez Island, there were only 335 people left, and more than half of the crew members died of scurvy. At that time, Admiral john howkins found that the chances of sailors suffering from scurvy during the long voyage were directly proportional to the time when they only ate dry food. If they can eat fresh food and package citrus fruits, they will recover soon. As fresh vegetables and fruits are the most difficult foods to preserve on board, the British Navy is committed to researching and developing their substitutes.
1747, James Linde, a British naval doctor, made this famous experiment on board. 12 sailors with severe scurvy eat exactly the same food, and the only different medicine is the prescription that was said to treat scurvy at that time. Two patients eat two oranges and a lemon every day, the other two drink apple juice, and the other two drink dilute sulfuric acid, sour vinegar, seawater, or other drugs that people thought could cure scurvy at that time. Six days later, only two people who ate citrus fruits got better, and the others were still sick. Linde continued his research and published a paper on scurvy in 1753.
Captain Cook, a famous British explorer, was praised for controlling the terrible scurvy. He sailed to the Pacific Ocean three times from 1768 to 1780. His crew was a little sick, but no one died of scurvy. At the same time, scurvy is still raging in many other expedition fleets. Cook's contribution to the prevention and treatment of scurvy made the Royal Society of London choose him as a member and awarded him the copley Medal. Every time he sailed ashore, Cook ordered the crew to go ashore to buy fruits, vegetables and green plants to supplement nutrition. On one occasion, he took 7860 pounds of German sauerkraut Saukerkraut aboard the flagship Endeavour. During the one-year voyage, 70 people on board had two pounds of supplies every week. Sour cabbage is rich in vitamin C, containing 50 mg of vitamin C per 100g.
Although experienced navigators after Admiral Hawkins know that replacing citrus fruits with lemon juice can prevent scurvy, lemon juice is expensive and difficult to store, so both the captain and the shipping company feel that it is better not to use it. The effect of lemon juice is also questionable among the public and controversial in the medical field.
Linde died in 1795, and the experimental results are unknown. However, another British doctor, Gilbert Bryan, believed Linde's results. 1795, Blane was appointed as a member of the British Naval Medical Committee because he was the king's doctor. Because of his efforts, the British Admiralty ordered every naval officer to drink 3/4 ounces of lemon juice every day. 1796, the number of cases of scurvy in the British navy was greatly reduced. The British navy doubled its combat power, and 1797 defeated the Spanish fleet, creating an enduring British empire.
Although the British Admiralty adopted lemon juice, the Ministry of Commerce acted on its own, so scurvy was still rampant in British merchant ships. Seventy years later, the British Ministry of Commerce stipulated in 1865 that sailors on merchant ships must also drink lemon juice every day. But at that time, I didn't know what substance in lemon was resistant to scurvy.
1907, Axel Holst and Theodor Frolich published a paper about the scurvy experiment in guinea pigs. They observed that mice and other animals will not get scurvy, only guinea pigs are similar to humans, and scurvy will occur after fresh fruits and vegetables are banned. This is why modern medical research must use guinea pigs for experiments, and the results can be extrapolated to human diseases. We now know that guinea pigs and primates (including humans) can't make vitamin C by themselves, and other animals can make vitamin C in the liver or kidney. Most human diseases are rare in other animals. Animals can recover quickly after injury and illness. Only humans need the professional services of doctors, because they can't produce vitamin C by themselves.
19 12 years, kazimierz funk, an American scientist of Polish descent, synthesized the previous experimental results and published The Theory of Vitamins. He believes that there are four substances in natural food that can prevent and treat night blindness, beriberi, scurvy and rickets. These substances are called "life-sustaining amines" by Fonk because Vitamine means life in Latin. Feng Ke thought that all these substances contained nitrogen or amino groups, so he added the ending of amine. Later, it was found that some substances do not contain nitrogen, so they are called vitamins, which are called vitamins or vitamins in Chinese. These four substances are called vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C and vitamin D respectively. People in China are called vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C and vitamin D respectively. Later, vitamin K was found in alphabetical order. There are many different components in vitamin B, so there are names such as vitamin B 1, B2, B3, B6 and B 12.
In the 1920- 1930 s, organic chemists began to study vitamins, trying to analyze vitamins in food and determine their chemical composition.
1928, Hungarian biochemist Albert Saint-Gerji successfully isolated 1 g pure vitamin C from the accessory kidney gland of cattle in the laboratory of British chemist frederick hopkins. He also won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research on vitamin C and oxidation reaction in human body. 1928, the chemical formula of vitamin C was determined to be C6H8O6, so it was called hexuronic acid. 1929 went to Mayo Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, USA for research. A nearby slaughterhouse provided him with a large number of bovine accessory kidneys for free, from which he separated 25 grams of vitamin C. He sent half of the purified vitamin C to the British sugar chemist Walter H. Haworth for analysis. But at that time, the technology was not mature, and Haworth could not determine the structure of vitamin C.
Szent-Gyorgyi returned to Hungary in 1930, and found that there was a lot of vitamin C in Hungarian pepper. He successfully separated 1 kg pure caproic acid from it, and sent another batch to Haworth for further analysis. 1932, charles king, a chemist in Pittsburgh, learned from Joe Svirbely, a student of Szent-Gyorgyi, that he had identified caproic acid as vitamin C, and he first published this result in the journal Nature. However, 1937 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Szent-Gyorgyi for his research on vitamin C and oxidation reaction in human body. Haworth determined the correct chemical structure of vitamin C, and made vitamin C by different methods, and won the 1937 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Szent- Gyorgyi and Haworth finally decided to name vitamin C ascorbic acid.
1933, Swiss chemist Tardez Reichstein invented vitamin C.