280 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITDTTON, 1942 



British sailors. However, before vitamin C was isolated, the whole 

 concept of some diseases being due to the lack of certain so-called 

 accessory factors had to be recognized by scientists and much experi- 

 mental work on animals performed. It was found that the guinea pig 

 suffered from scurvy and was a suitable experimental animal for these 

 studies. Using this animal as an indicator of activity it was possi- 

 ble by various methods of fractionation and separation to isolate 

 crystalline vitamin C. 



Vitamin C was isolated and first recognized as a vitamin by two 

 American biochemists, Waugh and King, in 1932. After they had 

 isolated vitamin C, using the guinea pig as an indicator of the activity 

 of their fractions, it was found that the same material had been iso- 

 lated from adrenal glands previously by a Hungarian, Szent-Gyorgyi, 

 in 1928. However, Szent-Gyorgyi had not recognized that he had had 

 vitamin C in his hands. Subsequent to the successful isolation of 

 vitamin C, chemists became interested in its structure and synthesis. 

 In 1933 chemists in various parts of the world had synthesized vitamin 

 C after the structure had first been determined. One of these early 

 syntheses is due to Reichstein, in which xylosone is converted to a 

 nitril, hydrolyzed to the 2-keto sugar acid, and finally converted to 

 ascorbic acid. This did not prove a very satisfactory comjnercial 

 synthesis, because it started with xylose or lyxose, both of which are 

 not readily available. A more successful synthesis, also due to Reich- 

 stein, used the readily available sugar, glucose, as raw material. 

 Glucose was hydrogenated to sorbitol, converted to sorbose, then to 

 diacetone sorbose, and then oxidized to 2-keto-Z-gulonic acid which was 

 converted into vitamin C. Among the other scientists who did con- 

 siderable work on the synthesis of this vitamin are Karrer, Haworth, 

 von Euler, and Micheel. 



The first manufacture of natural vitamin C in this country took 

 place in 1934. It was made from gladiolus leaves, which had been 

 found to contain a relatively high percent of vitamin C. Fields of 

 gladioli were planted in the vicinity of the author's company's factory. 

 Many difficulties were encountered in collecting and extracting the 

 plants on the day that they were cut. 



Synthetic ascorbic acid was first made available in the United 

 States in 1937. 



Beriberi, the disease caused by the lack of vitamin Bi, was also recog- 

 nized many years ago. Because so many people in the Orient have 

 suffered from this disease, the attention of medical scientists was 

 attracted to it at an early date. Most of the early work was carried 

 on in the Orient. Takaki, the director-general of the Japanese Navy 

 Medical Service, was able to banish beriberi from the Japanese Navy 

 in 1882 by increasing the allowance of vegetables, fish, and meat in 

 the navy diet and by using barley instead of polished rice. He recog- 



