Ascorbic Acid: Part 1

Now before we actually get on the topic about Ascorbic Acid, I need to first flash back to the age of discovery... the year is 1519, and Magellan is navigating the world. Now the year is 1522, in only 3 years, 90% of Magellan's crew died, primarily due to Scurvy. Scurvy is a disease easily prevented and is caused by the deficiency of Vitamin C, or Ascorbic Acid. There is a enormous list of  symptoms for Scurvy and it is very painful. Scurvy really became an issue in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, longer voyages were made possible by new ships but the crew could not maintain good health. All the sailors had to eat on the ocean was molded bread, hard cheese and salted meat, none of witch provided Vitamin C. Captain James Lancaster was in charge of four ships that was the small fleet for the East India Company. Capt. Lancaster carried a bottle of lemon juice on his ship, the Dragon. As soon as a crew member was diagnosed with Scurvy they were dosed with 3 teaspoons of lemon juice every morning. By the end of the voyage his ship was Scurvy free, that cant be said about the rest of the fleet. Nearly a quarter of his fleet died from Scurvy despite his example and NONE of the deaths were on his ship the Dragon. In 1747, James Lind, a Scottish Naval Surgeon decided to do an experiment, he chose twelve crew members suffering from Scurvy, divided them into groups of two, and gave them all different treatments. Two received a quart of Cider a day, two got vinegar, two got sulfuric acid, two drank a pint of seawater a day, two were fed a mixture of nutmeg, garlic, mustard seed, ect., and the final pair were given lemon juice. Within six days the men that received the lemon juice were able to return to work. Lind published his findings in A Treatise of Scurvy, but it took forty years before it was standard to have citrus fruits on every vessel. As easy as it was to prevent Scurvy, it barely happened. When the crew landed they headed straight for beer and meat, the captains on the other hand tried rare new fruits being sold at ports, in-turn, officers rarely got sick. James Cook was the first British Royal Naval Officer to keep his crew completely Scurvy free. His ship, the Endeavour, was tasked with charting the southern oceans. Cook, made sure that his ship was clean, food was well cooked, and everyone got fruit daily. On June 10th, 1770, the Endeavour, got a large rip in the hull and the whole crew was able to get the ship to the shore for repairs, something a Scurvy sick crew could never have done…