Albert Szent-Gyorgyi on Vitamin C
- From: "PeterB" <pkm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 13 Mar 2006 12:05:13 -0800
I thought it might be interesting to share the comments of Albert
Szent-Gyorgyi when he accepted the Nobel Prize in 1937 for his work
with vitamin C. Because of the length, I abbreviated his comments to
provide the most interesting highlights (many of which relate to the
earlier thread about the cure for heart disease.) It unknowingly
demonstrates the disregard with which science today treats the amazing
abilities of nutrients to directly treat human disease.
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Quotes from Szent-Gyorgyi's Nobel lecture on December 11, 1937
"...It can easily be observed that, when sunlight falls on green
plants, they liberate oxygen from carbon dioxide, and store up carbon,
bound to the elements of water, as carbohydrate...according to our
earlier views, carbon and carbon dioxide played the central role in
this process...but investigations during the last few decades have
brought hydrogen -- instead of carbon -- and instead of CO2
water...into the foreground...while this concept of energy fixation was
still being developed, the importance of hydrogen...whereby energy is
liberated by oxidation, had already been confirmed by H. Wieland's
experiments..."
"our body really only knows one fuel, hydrogen. The foodstuff,
carbohydrate, is essentially a packet of hydrogen, a hydrogen supplier,
a hydrogen donar, and the main event during its combustion is the
splitting off of hydrogen. So the combustion of hydrogen is the real
energy supplying reaction...Wieland and Thunberg showed, with regard to
foodstuffs, how the first step in oxidation is the "activation" of
hydrogen, whereby the bonds linking it to the food molecule are
loosened, and hydrogen prepared for splitting off. But at the same
time oxygen is also, as Warburg showed, activated for the reaction by
an enzyme. The hydrogen-activating enzymes are called deydrases or
dehydrogenases. Warburg called his oxygen-activating catalyst,
"respiratory enzyme..."
"...my first task was to show that the two processes are complementary
to one another, and that in muscle cells activated oxygen oxidizes
activate hydrogen...oxidation of hydrogen in stages seems to be one of
the basic principles of biological oxidation. The reason for it is
probably mainly that the cell would not be able to harness and transfer
to other processes the large amount of energy which would be released
by direct oxidation. The cell needs small change if it is to be able
to pay for its functions without losing too much in the process. So it
oxidizes the H-atom by stages, converting the large banknote into small
change..."
"...I myself was (and still am) convinced that, with regard to basic
functions, as oxidation may be regarded representative of them, there
are in principle no fundamental differences between animals and
plants..."
"...Prof. Krogh tried to help me, generously sending me adrenals from
Copenhagen by plane. But unfortuately the substance perished in
transit. Then the Mayo Foundation and Prof. Kendall came to my help on
a large scale, and made it possible for me to work, regardless of
expense, on the material from large American slaughter-houses. The
result of a year's work was 25g of a crystalline substance, which was
given the name "hexuronic acid." From the beginning, I had suspected
that the substance was identical with vitamin C... [note: at that
point, knowledge of vitamin C was limited to its frank
deficiency-related disease, scurvy, but no one had isolated it
chemically] ...in the autumn of 1931 our first experiments were
completed, and showed unmistakably that hexuronic acid was powerfully
anti-scorbutic, and that the anti-scorbutic activity of plant juices
corresponded to their hexuronic acid content..."
"...Suddenly the long-ignored hexuronic acid moved into the limelight,
and there was an urgen need for larger amounts of the substance, so
that on the one hand its structural analysis could be continued and on
the other its vitamin nature confirmed. However, in the course of our
vitamin experiments we had used up the last remnants of our substance,
and we had no chance of preparing the substance from adrenals, and, as
already mentioned, every other material was unsuitable for large-scale
work..."
"...My town, Szeged, is the centre of the Hungarian paprika industry.
Since this fruit travels badly, I had not had the chance of using it
earlier. The sight of this healthy fruit inspired me one evening with
a last hope, and that same night investigation revealed that this fruit
represented an unbelievably rich source of hexuronic acid, which, with
Haworth, I re-baptized ascorbic acid..."
"...I myself produced with Varga the mono-acetone derivative of
ascorbic acid, which forms magnificent crystals; from which, after
repeated dissolving and recrystallization, ascorbic acid can be
separated again with undiminished activity. This was the first proof
that ascorbic acid was identical with vitamin C, and that the
substance's activity was not due to an impurity. I do not wish to
linger any more over this well-known story, which developed in such a
dramatic fashion. Thanks to international collaboration, in the
unbelievable short space of two years the mysterious vitamin C had
become a cheap, synthetic product..."
[Comment: When is a chemical synthetic? From a manufacturing point of
view, the act of laboratory synthesis results in a synthetic product.
That is the context in which Szent-Gyorgyi referred to the manufacture
of vitamin C. But synthesis is taking place inside our bodies all the
time, and at one time, our ancestors also synthesized ascorbic acid --
as virtually every mammal does today -- within the liver. Only because
of a genetic mutation in the past is Man now hypoascorbemic (ie.,
unable to produce his own vitamin C.) Juxtaposed to this is the idea
that no chemical manufactured under laboratory conditions is a perfect
analog to a naturally occuringone. That is not always the case. For
instance, the commercial synthesis of folic acid results in a chemical
identical to the one catalyzed within the human body; and actually
simplifies the body's use of it because it bypasses the required
conversion of folate into the usable nutrient we find in supplement
form. Laboratory produced ascorbic acid is also identical to the
ascorbate synthesized inside the majority of life forms on this planet.
To my knowledge, with the exception of folic acid and vitamin C, no
other manufactured nutrients are perfect analogs to naturally-occuring
ones. Synthetic vitamin E and beta carotene are extremely suspect for
their benefits in human health, and should be considered inferior to
food-derived forms. The majority of man-made B vitamins (except for
folic acid) are variably effective and should be confined to
short-term use. Vitamin D3 is preferrable to its synthetic
counterpart, vitamin D2. Except for folic acid and vitamin C, all
vitamins should be acquired from food sources or whole food
supplements, whenever possible.]
"...At the time that I had just detected the rich vitamin content of
the paprika, I was asked by a colleage of mine for pure vitamin C.
This colleage himself suffered from a serious haemorrhagic diathesis.
Since I still did not have enough of this crystalline substance at my
disposal then, I sent him paprikas. My colleage was cured. But later
we tried in vain to obtain the same therapeutic effect with pure
Vitamin C. Guided by my earlier studies into the peroxidase system, I
investigated with my friend St. Rusznyak and his collaborators
Armentano and Bentsath the effect of the other link in the chain,
flavones. Certain members of this group of substances, the favanone
hesperidin and the formerly unknown eriodictyolglycoside, a mixture of
which we had isolated from lemons and named citrin, now had the same
therapeutic effect as paprika itself..." [Comment: I am sure this is
where the idea of the vitamin C "complex" was first thought up. Note
that Szent-Gyorgyi does not say there is a chemical relationship
between ascorbic acid and hesperidin or other nutrients, he simply
notes the syngerstic effects obtained when they are combined. Just as
importantly, he combined them in their isolated states after extraction
and still observed a therapeutic benefit. I therefore agree it's a
good idea to combine vitamin C with bioflavonoids, but the vitamin C
"complex" notion is not about chemistry, but synergy.]
"...It is still too early on in our experience for us to make any
definitive statements. But it does seem that these substances possess
great biological activity. They influence most obviously the capillary
blood vessels, whose permeability and resistance suffer gravely in many
disease states. These dyes are able to restore the state of affairs to
normal, and to judge by the first experiences, it seems that these
substances will enrich the doctor's inventory with a really useful new
weapon for him to fight illnesses with..."
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have tried to sketch out for you a rapid
picture of my work. When I myself look back, I only aware of the
distressing puniness of my efforts, as compared with the magnitude of
Nature and of my problems. One circumstance, however, fills me alwasy
with the greatest happiness and gratitude, when I look back on my own
struggles. From the moment I seized my staff, a novice in search of
knowledge, and left my devastated fatherland to tread the wanderer's
path -- which has not been without its privations -- as an unknown and
penniless novice, from that moment to the present one, I always felt
myself to belong to a great, international, spiritual family. Always
and everywhere I found helping hands, friendship, cooperation and
international solidarity. I owe it soley to this spirit of our science
that I did not succumb, an that my endeavours are now crowned with the
highest human recognition, the aware of the Nobel Prize. This Nobel
Prize, too, is but a fruit of this spirit, of this pan-human
solidarity. I can but hope, my heart filled with gratitude, that this
spirit may be preserved and that it may spread it bounteous rays beyond
the limits of our knowledge, over the whole of humanity."
-- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
.
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