It was not until 19 1 1 year that humans determined that it was caused by vitamin C deficiency.
/kloc-in the 0 th and 8 th centuries, scurvy was very common among ocean-going sailors (they were far from land and lacked fresh fruits and vegetables); It is also very popular among soldiers who have been trapped for a long time, communities that lack 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, irritability, fatigue in doing any work, and redness and swelling of the skin.
Patients will feel 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 earlier years, sailors died of scurvy because their food during the voyage was bread, fish and bacon, which contained only a little 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.
But people can't find the reason.
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 1 sailors were led by British Admiral Gianson 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.
James Linde, a British naval doctor, made this famous experiment on board. Sailors with severe scurvy all eat exactly the same food. The only different medicine was a prescription that was said to cure 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 fresh 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 50mg per 100g.
Although experienced navigators after Admiral Hawkins all know that replacing citrus fruits with lemon juice can prevent scurvy, lemon juice is expensive and difficult to preserve, and both the captain and the shipping company feel that it is reliable and unnecessary.
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 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-Gee 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.
But at that time, the technology was not mature, and Haworth could not determine the structure of vitamin C.
Szent-Gyyi returned to Hungary at 1930, and found that Hungarian peppers contain a lot of vitamin C.
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, USA, learned from JoeSvirbely, a student of Szent-Gyyi that he had identified hexuronic acid as vitamin C. He first published this result in the journal Nature.
However, 1937 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Szent-gyi for his research on vitamin C and oxidation reaction in human body.
Haworth determined the correct chemical structure of vitamin C.
Vitamin C was made by different methods and won the 1937 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Szent-gyi and Haworth finally decided to name vitamin C ascorbic acid.
1933, Swiss chemist Tardez Reichstein invented the industrial production method of vitamin C.
Firstly, glucose was reduced to sorbitol, which was fermented by bacteria to become sorbose, and then 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 vitamin C market.
1948 SARS (formerly known as atypical pneumonia) prevailed in the eastern United States, 1949 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, has 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 human beings and primates get scurvy because they lack 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 keep healthy.
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.
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 is first reduced to sorbitol, then transformed into sorbose by the first bacterial fermentation, then transformed into KGA(2- keto-gulonic acid) by the second bacterial fermentation, and finally alienated into vitamin C.
The international right to use this patent was sold to Roche 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.
In the1990s, the public also realized the limitations and defects of western medicine and sought alternative medicine.
Traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, traditional herbs, acupuncture, coffee and so on are gradually popularized, and the sales of various vitamins have also increased significantly.
In order to monopolize the vitamin market for a long time and obtain high profits, several major international vitamin manufacturers violate the rules of market competition, reach a secret price alliance, divide the market scope, and control the market price.
The three major pharmaceutical factories of vitamin C, Roche of Switzerland, BASF of Germany and Takeda Pharmaceutical of Japan, formed a monopoly group of vitamin C, and the price of vitamin C rose from $4 per kilogram in 1973 to $8 per kilogram in 194.
Attracted by the high international price of vitamin C, many pharmaceutical companies in China tried to enter the international market through two-step fermentation.
1996 in order to crack down on China pharmaceutical factories, the international vitamin c monopoly group began to reduce the price competition, reducing the price by 10% every month.
By 1997, the price of vitamin C had dropped to $4 per kilogram, forcing 26 domestic vitamin C pharmaceutical factories to close 22, leaving only four giants: Northeast Pharmaceutical, Shi Yao Weikang Pharmaceutical, Huayao Weikang Pharmaceutical and Jiangsu Jiangshan Pharmaceutical.
By 2002, the price had fallen to the bottom of $2.3.
Interestingly, the international vitamin C monopoly group suffered its own consequences and all closed down or disintegrated. Takeda Pharmaceutical's vitamin C factory was sold to BASF to stop production, and Roche's vitamin C factory was sold to DSM in the Netherlands.
1992, Dr. MathiasRath and Pauling published "Call for the Abolition of Heart Disease", claiming that vitamin C can treat various diseases of the heart and blood vessels.
They also popularized the PaulingRecipe for treating heart disease, which consists of vitamin C and two amino acids, lysine and proline.
They believe that taking these three compounds at the same time can prevent and clear coronary artery obstruction.
1994 10, President Clinton of the United States signed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), which clearly stipulates that people have the right to sell and choose various nutritional additives, and * * * shall not prohibit or interfere.
The reason for this bill is that the American pharmaceutical group and the US Food and Drug Administration lobbied Congress to urge the adoption of laws and regulations to classify vitamins and other nutrients as drugs that require a doctor's prescription.
Once vitamins become prescription drugs, people are not allowed to buy them at will, so pharmaceutical companies can raise prices and increase profits.
However, after the news came out, the whole country was in an uproar and Congress was driven by public opinion. Instead, the DSHEA Act was passed without any objection to protect people's right to take nutrients.
The frustration of American pharmaceutical groups prompted them to change their ways and try to control the sales channels of vitamin drugs under the framework of Codex Alimentarius of the United Nations Nutrition Management Committee.
The Nutrition Management Committee is an organization under the control of German pharmaceutical companies. From 1996, I tried to pass the proposal that vitamins and other nutrients should be listed as drugs that need a doctor's prescription.
If this bill is passed, all countries in the world (including the United States) must abide by it, or they will be sanctioned by the World Trade Organization.
Every year when the Codex Alimentarius Commission holds a meeting in Germany, Dr. Ratt will call on the masses to * * * * oppose this motion before the meeting.
As a result, the case has not yet passed.
1in may, 1999, the antitrust team of the U.S. department of justice sued and won the case, leaving the world's most powerful vitamin producer to suffer the consequences and paying a fine of $990 million for its price manipulation.
As the nine major vitamin producers in the world manipulate the sales price of vitamin C, the amount involved is as high as $5 billion, which not only increases the production costs of users such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, but also seriously harms the interests of consumers.
The US Department of Justice accused Roche of Switzerland as the initiator of the price cartel and fined it $500 million, while BASF of Germany was fined $225 million. Others are vitamin manufacturers in Belgium, Germany, France and Japan.
Roche executives admitted their crimes and served their sentences in American prisons.
200 1, 1 1, the EU also imposed a fine of 855 million euros on the above vitamin producers, including 462 million euros from Roche and 296 million euros from BASF.
In 2000, the global output of vitamin C was 80,000 tons, and it soared to 6,543.8+0,000 tons in 200 1 year. In the past two years, the international market demand has hovered around 85,000 tons. The contradiction between supply and demand is the root cause of the fiercest competition in the international market of 200 1 vitamin C raw materials, during which the market price of vitamin C raw materials dropped to a minimum of $2.3 per kilogram.
At the beginning of 2002, with the strategic adjustment of two international giants Roche and BASF in Germany, Roche sold the vitamin C business to DSM in the Netherlands, and BASF bought the vitamin C production line in Takeda, Japan and stopped production.
The output of foreign enterprises has decreased, and China's export of vitamin C accounts for 80% of the world market.
In 200 1 year, China * * * Vitamin C, under the leadership of China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Medicines and Health Products, held an industry meeting of domestic vitamin C enterprises, including the Big Four, to discuss development issues and negotiate their respective export volumes, and later formed an annual meeting.
Since May 1 2002, vitamin C has been listed as a controlled export commodity subject to customs price review and pre-approval by the Chamber of Commerce.
During the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis in 2002, Dr. Les Ratt put out huge advertisements in Hongkong and Singapore, suggesting that SARS is not a terminal disease for China people, but it can be treated with vitamin C.
The haze of SARS caused a rush to buy vitamin C in Asia, and the price of vitamin C soared to $0/6 per kilogram/kloc.
During the SARS period, the "Lido Shenwei C Effervescent Tablets" produced by Bayer Company were snapped up. In addition to the continuous operation of domestic production lines, 65,438+10,000 boxes of Lido Shenwei were urgently dispatched from Argentina, and all the production bases of Lido Shenwei in France, Australia and Argentina were produced day and night to supply the China market.
But after the crisis, the price of vitamin C dropped to $4 per kilogram.
In 2004, Xi 'an Younuokang Weisheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. produced10.5 million tons of vitamin C with a total output of 30,000 tons/year.
Other vitamin C pharmaceutical companies are waiting for another wave of price reduction competition.
In June, 2005, two American companies filed an antitrust lawsuit against China Vitamin C Big Four on the grounds that "the Chamber of Commerce organized price coordination and was suspected of price collusion".
In February 2006, two American companies filed lawsuits in different courts again.
With the proceeding of the lawsuit, the international price of vitamin C began to decline.
Because China's vitamin C occupies 85% of the market share in the United States, the success or failure of the lawsuit is of great significance to domestic vitamin C enterprises, which also led to the suspension of production of vitamin C production enterprises at home and abroad.
In September, 2005, DSM announced the official closure of its Bell Ouidir Vitamin C raw material pharmaceutical factory in New Jersey, USA, with an annual production capacity of 65,438+05,000 tons of vitamin C raw materials.
June, 5438+February, 2005, BASF announced that the vitamin C production workshop in Grenner, Denmark had stopped production, with an annual production capacity of 4,000 tons.
In 2006, the wave of suspension of production affected the four giants of vitamin C in China. Weierkang Pharmaceutical, a Chinese medicine with an annual output of more than 20,000 tons, stopped production for 30 days during June+10/October in 5438.
Jiangshan Pharmaceutical, with an annual output of 20,000 tons in early April, also entered the production suspension stage, and Shi Yao Weisheng Pharmaceutical, with an annual output of 30,000 tons in mid-April, also entered the production suspension stage.
Northeast Pharmaceutical, with an annual output of about 23,000 tons, said it had no plans to stop production, but was considering it.
The total output of these four enterprises is close to 654.38 million tons, accounting for more than 90% of the domestic market and 87% of the export volume, accounting for more than half of the international market.
The people of China play a key role in the fight against the virus.
China, with a large population and dense population, is the area where the virus is most likely to spread, and it is also the area most affected by the virus.
For example, many influenza viruses originated in China, SARS virus first appeared in China, and 90% of people who died of SARS came from China.
Vitamin C has high application value in resisting virus and preventing viral infectious diseases.
China has gradually become the leading position in vitamin C production, but the average dose of vitamin C taken by people in China is far lower than that in Europe, America and Japan.
If we generally recognize the principle of vitamin C in preventing and treating virus infection and take it in moderation, we can prevent the spread of many viruses.
The real role of vitamin C will be shown in the treatment of more serious viral infectious diseases such as avian influenza, SARS and AIDS.