Scurvy is a disease that has been known for hundreds of years, but it was called an incurable disease at that time, because people didn't understand its causes before, and the mortality rate was very high. It was not until 19 1 1 year that human beings determined that it was caused by vitamin C deficiency. In the18th century, scurvy was very common among ocean-going sailors (they were far away from land and lacked fresh fruits and vegetables), and it was common in army soldiers who had been trapped for a long time, communities which lacked food for a long time, besieged cities, prisoners and prisoners. 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, irritability, fatigue in doing any work, and redness and swelling of the 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. There is a lot of bleeding under the skin (it looks like a serious injury). Finally, he died of severe fatigue, diarrhea, dyspnea, fracture and liver and kidney failure. In early years, sailors died of scurvy because their food during the voyage was bread, fish 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 substances in vegetables and fruits (later found to be vitamin C) are of great help in 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. 1741June arrived in Juan Fernandez, only 335 people were left, and more than half of the crew 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, GilbertBlane, believed Linde's results. Blane was appointed as a member of the British Naval Medical Committee on 1795. 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 TheodorFrolich published a paper on the experiment of scurvy 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-Giurgi successfully isolated 1g pure vitamin C from the accessory kidney gland of cattle in the laboratory of British chemist Frederic Gorland 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. However, 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 Hungarian pepper contained a lot of vitamin C. He successfully isolated 1 kg pure caproic acid from it, and sent another batch to Haworth for further analysis. 1932, charles king, a chemist in Pittsburgh, USA, learned from JoeSvirbely, a student of Szent-Gyorgyi, that he had identified hexuronic 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 Thaddaus Reichstein invented the industrial production method of vitamin C. In this method, glucose was first reduced to sorbitol, which was fermented by bacteria to become sorbose, and acetone was added to the sorbose to make diacetone sorbose, which was oxidized by chlorine and sodium hydroxide to become DAKS (diacetone gulonic acid). DAKS was dissolved in mixed organic solution and recombined into vitamin C under the action of acidic catalyst. The patent right of this method was purchased by Roche Company as 1934, which has become the main method for industrial production of vitamin C for more than 50 years. Roche therefore monopolized the market for vitamin C. 1948 saw the SARS epidemic in the eastern United States, and 1949 saw the global polio epidemic. Doctors all over the world have no choice but to isolate patients and prevent infection. Dr Fred R. Klenner of South Carolina, USA, cured many of these two patients with intravenous vitamin C. Klenner found that intravenous vitamin C can treat all viral diseases, such as hepatitis, encephalitis, influenza and many other acute and chronic diseases. His experience and many other reports on the use of vitamins to treat diseases have been ignored by the medical community. The pharmaceutical industry pursues high-profit patented drugs and vaccines, while unpatented vitamins are squeezed out and suppressed. 1959, American biochemist J. J. Burns found that scurvy in humans and primates is due to the lack of an enzyme-L-gulonolactone oxidase, which is one of the four essential enzymes to convert glucose into vitamin C. Therefore, people must take vitamin C from food to promote health. Other mammals make vitamin C in the liver, while amphibians and fish make vitamin C in the kidneys. Many human-specific diseases, such as colds, colds, flu, hepatitis, heart disease and cancer, are rare in animals. These diseases are caused by the inability of the human body to produce vitamins by itself. Vitamin C Cures the Cold (Vitamin C and the Common Cold) published by linus pauling, a chemist who won the Nobel Prize twice in 1970. It is suggested that large doses (far more than 0) of vitamin C can prevent and treat colds. Although the medical community strongly opposed his argument, Pauling's research did attract academic attention to the application of vitamin C beyond RDA dosage, and led to a large number of similar studies around the world. This book sells well in the United States, and people snap up vitamin C, resulting in a worldwide shortage. Strangely, after 1970, the death rate of heart disease in Americans decreased significantly, while the death rate of western Europeans and Japanese who are also developing countries is the same. Many people think that this is strong evidence that vitamin C can prevent heart disease. From 65438 to 0976, Norman Cousins, editor-in-chief of new york's Saturday Evening Post, published the article Anatomy of Aging in the New England Journal of Medicine. The New England Journal of Medicine rarely publishes laymen's articles. In this article, Kazenz describes in detail his experience of fighting the very painful arthritis in 1964. He watched the comedy, laughed for 10 minutes, and then got two hours of painless sleep, so he stopped taking painkillers such as aspirin. He insists on intravenous injection of 25 grams of vitamin C every day to repair his joints and connective tissue. Soon he went back to work by email on Saturday night. This article shocked the American medical community, and more than 3,000 doctors wrote to Couzentz to support his argument. From 65438 to 0979, Dr. EwanCameron and Pauling published a book "Cancer and Vitamin C C", suggesting that large doses of vitamin C can help cancer patients and treat some cancers, which once again aroused fierce opposition from the medical community. NIH invited C. G. Moertel, a cancer doctor from the famous Mayo Hospital, to do two double-blind experiments, which proved that large doses of vitamin C could not treat cancer. However, there were many problems in the two experiments, and the results did not quell the controversy over the treatment of cancer with vitamin C. 1980, Yin Guanglin, a researcher at Beijing Institute of Microbiology, China Academy of Sciences, invented a new two-step fermentation process of vitamin C, which greatly improved the one-step fermentation process in Reichstein and reduced the production cost of vitamin C. In this method, glucose was first reduced to sorbitol, and then it was transformed into sorbose through the first bacterial fermentation. After the second bacterial fermentation, it became KGA(2- keto-Gulloni acid) and finally alienated into vitamin C. The international right to use this patent was sold to Swiss Roche Company on 1985, which was the largest foreign technology transfer project in China at that time. Roche obtained a patent, but did not use it, and still used the ancient Reichstein one-step fermentation method. Its purpose is to prevent other foreign companies from using the new law to compete with them. The domestic right to use this patent in China was not sold to Roche. By the early stage of 1990, 26 pharmaceutical factories producing vitamin C by two-step fermentation were established in China. 198 1 year, Dr. RobertCathcart of Caskat discovered a method to determine the saturated amount of vitamin C in diarrhea patients. Taking too much vitamin C orally can lead to diarrhea. Diarrhea shows that all organs of the human body are saturated with vitamin C. The saturated amount of vitamin C in normal people is 4- 15g per day. The saturated amount of vitamin C in patients is greatly increased. The more serious the illness, the higher the saturation of vitamin C, even as high as 200 grams per day. Taking vitamin C slightly below saturation level orally every day is an effective prescription to treat various infectious diseases. Dr. Cascade successfully cured 7000 cases of common cold, influenza, atypical pneumonia, acute mononucleosis, acute hepatitis, hay fever, asthma, trauma, surgical trauma, burns, back pain, arthritis, scarlet fever, herpes zoster and so on. This method solves the 60-year dispute about the use of vitamin C to treat diseases, that is, the dosage of vitamin C to treat diseases. Many previous experiments have shown that vitamin C is ineffective because the dose does not reach the saturated amount of vitamin C.