ARTICLES 



605 



(60° C), or after steaming for 20 minutes at 90° C.,* 5 gm. is 

 the necessary minimum, and, after steaming or boiling 20 

 minutes at 100° C, 5 gm. is not sufficient to ensure health, mild 

 scurvy appearing in the former and more severe scurvy in 

 the latter case. In all these cases the value of 5 gm. of fresh 

 cabbage has been reduced by cooking to that of only i gm., i.e. 

 there has been a loss of about four-fifths of the original value 

 (about 80 per cent.). 



Similar results were found in the case of runner beans * 

 and germinating lentils,^ as shown in Table III, and also in 

 vegetable, but not to the same extent in the case of fruit 

 juices (Table IV). The contrast between the behaviour of 

 raw cabbage-juice and orange-juice when heated is particularly 

 striking, since both these juices have a similarly powerful 

 anti-scorbutic effect when fresh and raw. From Table III it 

 may be seen that a loss of anti-scurvy value also follows when 

 runner beans are heated, as in canning, and it is to be expected 

 that a similar loss of anti-scorbutic value would occur when 

 other vegetables or fruits are heated. 



TABLE III 

 Showing Effect of Heat on the Anti -scorbutic Value of Certain Vegetables 



4. Methods of cooking Vegetables. — When the effects of 

 heating cabbage at different temperatures are compared, it 

 will be seen that the time has more significance than the 

 temperature used. For instance, simmering cabbage for i 

 hour at 60° C. has about the same destructive effect on its 

 anti-scurvy value as steaming at 100° C, for 20 minutes, but 



* A temperature of 90° C. is obtained at or near sea level when a steam 

 chamber fits loosely over a vessel containing fast-boiling water ; or when the 

 lid of a tight-fitting steamer is tilted, the water below being kept boiling. 



