Vitamin C- Ascorbic Acid

The juices of citrus fruits like oranges, limes, and lemons prevent and cure scurvy, a disease characterized by bleeding from the gums and other parts of the body after or without an injury. This disease was widely prevalent among sailors on long voyages as they had to subsist on salt, fish, meat, and bread, and were entirely deprived of any fresh food.

Vitamin C appears in a white crystal form and is readily soluble in water. This vitamin is easily destroyed by heat, oxidation, drying, and storage. Alkalinity, even to a slight degree, is distinctly destructive to this vitamin. Acid fruits and vegetables lose much less ascorbic acid on heating than non-acid foods. This vitamin is lost from some vegetables during the first few minutes of cooking.

Absorption of ascorbic acid into the bloodstream takes place in the upper part of the small intestine. The amount of ascorbic acid in different tissues varies: the adrenal and pituitary tissue, brain, pancreas, kidneys, liver, and spleen have relatively high concentrations; blood cells contain even more than the bloodstream.

Vitamin C is excreted by the kidneys through the urine. Excretion is diminished or absent when the body is already depleted of it. When there is an intake of over 3 g of vitamin C per day, the unabsorbed ascorbic acid is largely excreted in the faeces, and to a smaller extent, in the urine.

Vitamin C Ascorbic Acid Sources and Functions

Vitamin C Healing Properties, Deficiency Symptoms and Precautions

Vitamin C Cures for Common Cold, cancer, infections and cancer

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