The Legend of Vitamin C

The Legend of Vitamin C🌶

Vitamin C is the most important vitamin for our body. Replenishing it is extremely important for the healthy functioning of our organism. There were times when people died en masse due to a lack of vitamin C. That disease is called scurvy. It is time to get to know the history of vitamin C, without which we can freely say we would not have health, and that is what history tells us too.

The discoverer of vitamin C is the Hungarian physician and biochemist Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893), who was the first to isolate this “essential nutrient” from red pepper. Legends about his research tell of how he was not a fan of peppers, and his wife packed one with his snack. Deciding not to hurt his wife's feelings, he hid it in his pocket and used it for scientific research. That pepper was his key to finding the “acid essential for the human body”, as he first called it. In the end, the pepper he did not even like brought him worldwide recognition and the Nobel Prize.

However, science says that in reality it all happened a little differently. Szent-Györgyi, after finishing his medical studies in Hungary, travelled the world and took part in a great deal of scientific research. In 1931, on an invitation, he returned to his mother country and continued with his work and research. As early as 1928 he had isolated an acid, hexuronic acid, from the adrenal gland, but he found only small quantities that did not allow for more precise research. Later, in 1932, he found the same acid in pepper, in a larger quantity, and by then he was already sure that he had found the “nutrient essential for the human body” and immediately named it the “acid against scurvy” or, as we know it, ascorbic acid. These new findings meant that there was no longer any dilemma about how to produce vitamin C. In the history of vitamin C it is even more interesting that peppers were imported by sailors from across the sea, who suffered from scurvy the most, and that it was precisely in Szeged that the largest pepper plantation was located, where he worked and carried out his research. He received his Nobel Prize in 1937. His spirit and greatness showed themselves on several occasions. After the Second World War he found his home in the USA, where he researched the methodology of fighting tumour and cancer cells. There, final peace caught up with him in 1986. Whether we are young or old, sick or healthy, our body has a need for vitamin C, which we can take in through food, drink and supplements.

Vitamin C is the best-known antioxidant, which defends our body against the oxidative processes caused by free radicals. ☝️

You can read more about the properties and action of vitamin C on our website, under the product Spelta Vita Strong. Let the closing words of this text be the sincere words of a great and modest biochemistry scientist, Albert Szent-Györgyi, who, despite all his accolades, never forgot to remain, above all, a human being. We are proud of him. “As a citizen of this country, I never worked more than I thought was my duty, and as a researcher, I never did anything other than what satisfied my interests. It is an honour for me to have received this diploma at my university (in Szeged), in my own country.”

It is said that Albert Szent-Györgyi was a great lover of green grain juice too, and every morning he began the day with this wonderful drink, because he believed in its precious substances.