VITAMIN C 205 



in water after being ground to a coarse powder. Evidence of vitamin C 

 was noted after 15 hours for the peas, but on prolonging the time of 

 imbibition the activity disappeared. 



It is unfortunate that these studies from Kucera's laboratory are 

 not reported in greater detail for the question of the development of 

 appreciable antiscorbutic properties in cereal grains during the soak- 

 ing which sometimes precedes the application of heat in cooking 

 is of interest both in theoretical consideration of the mode of syn- 

 thesis of vitamin C and in interpreting popular impressions. Among 

 Russian peasants there is a belief that their black bread prepared 

 from whole grain flour (including the embryo) by a slow process in 

 which there is long soaking and an opportunity for considerable 

 enzyme action to take place, has some value as an antiscorbutic, while 

 white bread made from the endosperm only and by a quicker process 

 has none. 



Seed pods have not been studied extensively, though by analogy 

 to fruits it might be expected that they should show antiscorbutic 

 properties in the succulent stage of their development, and this has 

 been found to be true in striking degree by Quinn, Burtis and Milner 

 (1927) in their studies of string beans and of green peppers. Delf 

 (1921, 1922) tested the pumpkin and vegetable marrow: 15 to 20 cubic 

 centimeters of juice from 75 to 100 grams of raw pumpkin proved 

 to be the minimum protective dose. The results obtained with vege- 

 table marrow were inconclusive although the juice of the young green 

 marrow was more active than that at the end of the season. This does 

 not suggest a very high content of vitamin V in this class of vegetables. 

 The cucumber enjoys the reputation of a good antiscorbutic in Russia 

 but has received little attention in studies of vitamin C content. Thur- 

 man and Vahlteich (1928) found that 4 grams daily of fresh cucum- 

 ber gave complete protection to 300 grams guinea pigs. Smaller amounts 

 were not tested, since an earlier study by Embrey (1923) had given 

 10 grams as the minimum protective dose. Thurman and Vahlteich 

 also found that fresh cucumber pickles made by cooking sliced fresh 

 cucumbers with vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices according to a modern 

 commercial method, gave complete protection in 6 grams daily amounts, 

 while pickles prepared in the same way from salt stock cucumbers 

 afforded no measurable protection in 16 grams daily doses. 



Munsell (1930) has recently reported that the watermelon is a 

 good source of vitamin C. In her studies 6 grams daily of the red or 

 pink fleshy portion of ripe watermelons just failed to protect and 8 

 grams afforded complete protection to guinea pigs during the custo- 



