SYNTHESIS AND SOME MAJOR FUNCTIONS OF VITAMIN C IN ANIMALS

Key takeaways

01Most animals can synthesize Vitamin C, but humans cannot
02The classic method to test this involved inducing scurvy
03A newer in vitro method is faster and simpler
04It measures Vitamin C synthesis directly in tissue samples

This paper outlines a lab-based method that simplifies testing which animal species can produce their own Vitamin C.

Abstract

The requirement of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is a common property of living organisms, and it has long been considered that all animals except the guinea pig, monkey, and man can synthesize this vitamin. The classic method for determining the ability of an animal to synthesize ascorbic acid is to feed it a scorbutogenic diet for a prolonged period and to observe the appearance of the scurvy syndrome. Obviously, the method is laborious and time-consuming. Also, the onset of the scorbutic syndrome depends on the ascorbic-acid-retention capacity of the animal. For example, whereas the guinea pigs can be made scorbutic in about 3 weeks, it takes 3 to 4 months to produce scurvy in man. Since the discovery of the technique for studying ascorbic acid synthesir in vitro,1-8 the task has become much simpler. In this technique, the tissue homogenates or the subcellular fractions are incubated with precursors of ascorbic acid and the amount of the vitamin formed is estimated. Using the in vitro method, we have examined the ascorbic acid synthesizing abilities of different species of animals in the phylogenetic tree, and the results are given below.

Cite this study

APA: I B Chatterjee, A K Majumder, B K Nandi, & N Subramanian (1975). SYNTHESIS AND SOME MAJOR FUNCTIONS OF VITAMIN C IN ANIMALS. https://fasciaresearchdatabase.com/synthesis-and-some-major-functions-of-vitamin-c-in-animals/
MLA: I B Chatterjee, et al. "SYNTHESIS AND SOME MAJOR FUNCTIONS OF VITAMIN C IN ANIMALS." 1975, https://fasciaresearchdatabase.com/synthesis-and-some-major-functions-of-vitamin-c-in-animals/.
Chicago: I B Chatterjee et al. 1975. "SYNTHESIS AND SOME MAJOR FUNCTIONS OF VITAMIN C IN ANIMALS.". https://fasciaresearchdatabase.com/synthesis-and-some-major-functions-of-vitamin-c-in-animals/

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