FRUIT JUICES
Orange and Lemon Juice.—The most thoroughly studied antiscorbutic foods are orange and lemon juice, which have been singled out because they contain the antiscorbutic factor in the highest concentration. It has been ascertained through the work of various investigators that guinea-pigs require about 3 c.c. daily of either of these juices to protect them from scurvy, but that about half this amount is sufficient to prevent the manifestation of clinical signs.
Both of these juices withstand heat remarkably well. Orange juice can be boiled for 10 minutes without noting any diminution of its antiscorbutic value, and lemon juice heated to 110° C. without appreciably losing its efficacy. However, orange juice undergoes some change as the result of being heated in an autoclave for 45 minutes at a temperature of 110° under 10 to 15 pounds pressure. Although 6 c.c. of this heated preparation were able to prevent the development of scurvy, the guinea-pigs did not gain nearly as well as those which received 3 c.c. of the unheated juice. It seemed as if there was a destruction of some factor apart from the antiscorbutic principle.
In spite of the fact that these juices withstand heat well, they are sensitive to some other conditions. Orange juice which had been stored in the cold for three months was unable to protect guinea-pigs in the dosage of 3 c.c. per animal, resembling in its action the autoclaved juice. When this orange juice was six months old, double this quantity failed to protect; throughout this period it was kept in the ice-box and covered with a layer of oleum petrolatum to avoid the access of air or possible contamination. Harden and Zilva met with a similar experience, and state that “after storing treated (concentrated) lemon juice for about a fortnight in a cold room, a marked loss can be observed in its potency.”
These authors reported also that when orange juice is rendered slightly alkaline it loses its antiscorbutic potency. This question was investigated in relation to canned tomato juice, as well as to orange juice, and it was found that shortly after having been rendered 0.05 N alkaline to phenolphthalein, neither of these foods had lost an appreciable amount of its antiscorbutic factor. Five cubic centimetres per capita daily of freshly-alkalized orange juice were able to cure a group of pigs which had developed scurvy on another diet. If, however, 24 hours were allowed to elapse instead of only one-half to one hour, between the alkalization and the feeding, then a considerable amount of the antiscorbutic factor was lost. The same general rule seems to hold for alkalization as for heating, i.e., the length of time the antiscorbutic food is subjected to the deleterious influence is fully as important as the intensity of the process. Advantage has been taken of the fact that freshly-alkalized orange juice retains its potency, in using it intravenously in the treatment of infantile scurvy.
Subcutaneous injections of neutralized orange juice failed to cure scurvy in guinea-pigs; Harden and Zilva were equally unsuccessful with large doses of their concentrated lemon juice. This is of interest in view of the marked therapeutic result which Shiga obtained with subcutaneous injections of the water-soluble vitamine in pigeons suffering from polyneuritis. It should be added that Holst and Froelich (1912) failed to cure scurvy in guinea-pigs by intraperitoneal inoculations of orange juice.
Lemon juice or orange juice may be dried and lose little of its antiscorbutic power. In their paper of 1912 Holst and Froelich reported the efficacy of lemon juice evaporated in a vacuum, and recently Harden and Zilva published experiments which proved that “by evaporating the treated lemon juice to dryness in an acid medium an active dry residue is obtained.” Still more recently Givens has shown that orange juice reduced to a powdered form by means of a spraying process has lost little of the antiscorbutic factor. These results prove that under certain conditions the antiscorbutic factor withstands drying; one of these favorable influences is an acid reaction, and another, rapidity of desiccation.[40]
Lime Juice.—Recently an investigation of lime juice has been carried out by Chick, Hume and Skelton. They were “unable to detect any significant protection in a daily ration of from 5 to 10 c.c.of preserved lime juice which was several months or a year or more old.” Crude lime juice of various ages had slight antiscorbutic value, affording only partial protection in a daily ration of 5 c.c. Even fresh juice was found not to be very efficacious compared with lemon juice. The authors conclude that “the relative value of these two fruit juices deduced from the trials with monkeys is therefore in accord with that obtained in the experiments with guinea-pigs, i.e., the value of fresh lemon juice is approximately four times that of fresh lime juice.” Holst and Froelich in 1907 carried out a similar but less extensive investigation. They also found that lime juice was unable to protect guinea-pigs from scurvy. Fuerst, a co-worker of Holst, continued this work, and in his article of 1912 stated that guinea-pigs should not be protected by a daily addition to their ration of 25 g. of lime juice; these guinea-pigs received a mixed diet consisting of dry vegetables, butter, almonds and malt extract. These two reports of the Norwegian investigators on this interesting subject should have attracted attention.
Other Fruits.—A word may be said in regard to some other fruits. The antiscorbutic potency of raspberries was tested by Holst and Froelich (1912) and found comparable to oranges and to lemons. The juice was also highly resistant to heat, so that 10 c.c. of freshly-pressed juice were of protective value, even after it had been subjected to 100 or 110° C. for one hour. Guinea-pigs which were thus treated showed no microscopic signs of scurvy in any of the ribs, in the tibiæ or the femora.
| Classes of Foodstuffs | Antiscorbutic Factor | Classes of Foodstuffs | Antiscorbutic Factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meat, Fish, Etc.: | Vegetables and Fruits: | ||
| Lean meat (beef, mutton, etc.) | + | Cabbage, fresh | +++ |
| Liver | + | Cabbage, cooked | + |
| Tinned meats | 0 | Cabbage, dried | Very slight |
| Beef juice | + | Swede, raw expressed juice | ++ |
| Lettuce | ++ | ||
| Milk, Cheese, Etc.: | Carrots, fresh raw | + | |
| Milk, cow’s, whole raw | + | Carrots, dried | 0 |
| Milk, cow’s, skim raw | + | Beetroot, raw, expressed juice | Less than + |
| Milk, cow’s, dried | + | Potatoes, raw | . . . . |
| Milk, cow’s, boiled | Less than + | Potatoes, cooked | + |
| Milk, cow’s, pasteurized | Less than + | Potatoes, dried | 0 |
| Milk, cow’s, condensed (sweetened) | Less than + | Beans, fresh, raw | ++ |
| Onions | ++ | ||
| Eggs: | Lemon juice, fresh | +++ | |
| Fresh | ?0 | Lemon juice, preserved | ++ |
| Dried | ?0 | Lime juice, fresh | ++ |
| Lime juice, preserved | Very slight | ||
| Cereals, Pulses, Etc.: | Orange juice | +++ | |
| Wheat, maize, rice, whole grain | 0 | Raspberries | ++ |
| Wheat germ | 0 | Grapes | + |
| Wheat, maize, bran | 0 | Apples | + |
| White wheaten flour, pure corn flour, | Bananas | Very slight | |
| polished rice, etc. | 0 | Tomatoes (canned) | ++ |
| Linseed, millet | 0 | ||
| Dried peas, lentils, etc. | 0 | Miscellaneous: | |
| Soy beans, haricot beans | 0 | Yeast, autolyzed | 0 |
| Germinated pulses or cereals | ++ | Meat extract | 0 |
| Beer | 0 | ||
| Cod liver oil | 0 | ||
| Olive oil | 0 | ||
| Human blood | + | ||
| * This table is a modification of one prepared by the Medical Research Committee | |||
These authors also reported that they found banana and apple poor in antiscorbutic power, 30 g. daily being insufficient to protect a guinea-pig (Table 3). This was our experience with banana in the treatment of infants suffering from mild scurvy. The banana has been shown by Sugiura and Benedict to be poor also in the water-soluble vitamine. It would be of interest to determine the difference in vitamine content between the fully ripe and the unripe fruit.
In view of the fact that grapes are used considerably in the treatment of infantile scurvy, it is of importance to realize that they are poor in the antiscorbutic principle. Chick and Rhodes found that three of four guinea-pigs receiving 20 g. daily developed scurvy; they rated the potency as ten times less than that of orange juice.