Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  T 
October,  19 19.  > 
Antiscorbutics. 
673 
tion  is  concerned  in  the  deteriorating  influences  of  these  preservation 
processes. 
From  the  standpoint  of  culinary  food  preparation,  Delf5  suggests 
that  these  facts  have  some  bearing  on  methods  of  cooking  green 
vegetables,  and  indicate  broadly  that  the  least  loss  of  antiscorbutic 
properties  will  be  obtained  by  cooking  green  vegetables  for  a  short 
time  at  a  higher  temperature  rather  than  for  a  longer  time  at  a  lower 
temperature.  Hess  and  Unger6  have  lately  reported  that  carrots 
lose  much  or  all  of  their  antiscorbutic  potency  through  cooking. 
They  have,  furthermore,  called  attention  to  the  added  factor  of  the 
maturity  of  the  plant.  As  they  express  it,  from  a  nutritional  stand- 
point carrots  cannot  be  looked  on  as  a  uniform  article  of  diet.  There 
is  a  marked  difference  in  various  lots  of  carrots,  and  probably  also* 
of  other  vegetables,  according  to  whether  they  are  fresh  and  young, 
or  are  old.  It  was  found,  for  example,  that  if,  instead  of  employing 
the  carrots  which  were  ordinarily  fed  to  their  laboratory  animals, 
they  gave  the  same  amount  of  fresh  young  carrots,  plucked  only  a 
few  days  previously  and  cooked,  not  only  did  the  animals  not 
develop  scurvy,  but  they  gained  steadily  in  weight  for  a  long  period. 
Hess  and  Unger6  remark  that  the  freshness  and  age  of  the 
vegetables  sufficed  also  to  enable  them  to  retain  their  antiscorbutic 
potency  after  dehydration.  This  is  a  statement  of  considerable  im- 
portance because  it  points  to  a  further  variable  that  may  need  to  be 
considered  in  evaluating  food  preparations  from  the  standpoint  of 
their  antiscorbutic  effects.  If,  to  the  problem  of  the  effect  of  heat, 
oxidation,  preliminary  treatment  and  age  of  the  fresh  product,  there 
is  added  the  question  as  to  the  possible  influence  of  different  reac- 
tions of  acid  and  alkali  as  they  occur  naturally  in  foods  or  are  added 
incidental  to  their  manipulation — the  complexity  of  the  project  of 
retaining  the  antiscorbutic  potency  becomes  more  apparent. 
This  is  a  time  for  cultivating  the  "open  mind"  in  reference  to 
the  true  nutritive  value  of  conserved  foods.  If  some  desiccated 
vegetables  have  proved  to  be  devoid  of  antiscorbutic  efficiency,  it 
must,  nevertheless,  be  admitted  that  the  loss  can  probably  be  averted 
entirely  or  partially  when  the  conditions  which  determine  it  are 
definitely  ascertained.  Fruit  juices  have  already  been  concentrated, 
and  tomatoes  have  already  been  dehydrated  without  becoming  im- 
6  Hess,  A.  F.,  and  Unger,  L.  J.,  "  The  Scurvy  of  Guinea-Pigs,  III,  The 
Effect  of  Age,  Heat  and  Reaction  on  Antiscorbutic  Foods,"  /.  Biol.  Chem.» 
38:  293  (June),  1919. 
