History of vitamin C discovery

The history of vitamin C is one of medicine's most dramatic stories: a mystery disease that killed sailors for centuries, a Nobel Prize-winning discovery, and a molecule that became the world's most widely used dietary supplement.

1. Scurvy: the sailors' curse (15th–18th centuries)

Before vitamin C was identified, scurvy claimed the lives of millions of sailors. Symptoms include bleeding gums, loose teeth, skin hemorrhages, extreme fatigue, and death. On long sea voyages, up to 50% of crews could perish from scurvy.

  • 1497: Vasco da Gama loses 100 of 160 sailors to scurvy
  • 1535: Jacques Cartier's crew is saved by indigenous people using pine needle tea (rich in vitamin C)
  • 1747: James Lind's landmark clinical trial proves citrus fruits cure scurvy
  • 1795: British Royal Navy mandates lemon juice — incidence of scurvy drops to near zero

2. The isolation of vitamin C (1928–1933)

The active anti-scurvy substance ("vital amine C") was isolated by two scientists working independently:

  • Albert Szent-Györgyi (Hungary) isolated hexuronic acid from adrenal glands in 1928
  • Charles Glen King (USA) identified it as the anti-scurvy factor in 1932
  • Walter Norman Haworth (UK) determined its chemical structure and named it "ascorbic acid"
🏅 Nobel Prize 1937: Albert Szent-Györgyi received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of vitamin C and its role in biological oxidation reactions.

3. Industrial synthesis (1934)

Swiss chemist Tadeus Reichstein developed the first industrial synthesis of ascorbic acid in 1934 (the Reichstein process), making vitamin C the first vitamin synthesized on an industrial scale. This process, with modifications, is still the basis of commercial vitamin C production today.

YearMilestone
1928Isolation of hexuronic acid (later called ascorbic acid)
1932Identification as anti-scurvy factor
1933Chemical structure determined
1934First industrial synthesis (Reichstein process)
1937Nobel Prize awarded to Szent-Györgyi
1970Linus Pauling publishes "Vitamin C and the Common Cold"
2004NIH demonstrates IV vitamin C achieves pharmacological levels

4. The vitamin C revolution

Following Linus Pauling's 1970 book, vitamin C supplement use exploded. By 1975, Americans were consuming 100,000 tons of vitamin C per year. Today, vitamin C remains the world's best-selling dietary supplement.

5. Modern research and future perspectives

Current research is exploring vitamin C in several promising areas:

  • Epigenetic regulation via TET enzyme support
  • High-dose IV vitamin C in oncology
  • Critically ill patients in ICU settings
  • Sepsis treatment protocols
  • Neurodegenerative disease prevention

After nearly a century of study, vitamin C continues to surprise researchers with new mechanisms of action and therapeutic potential.

FAQ

Sailors couldn't access fresh fruits and vegetables for months at sea. Vitamin C cannot be stored by the body for long periods, so without regular intake, levels drop within 4–6 weeks. The first symptoms of scurvy appear after 1–3 months of deficiency — precisely the duration of long voyages between ports.
The first symptoms appear after 1–3 months of near-total vitamin C deprivation. James Lind's experiments showed that citrus fruit treatment could reverse symptoms within days to weeks. Today, frank scurvy is rare in developed countries but subclinical deficiency (plasma levels < 11 µmol/L) remains common.
Unlike humans and guinea pigs, rats synthesise their own vitamin C via the enzyme L-gulonolactone oxidase. Humans lost this gene (GULO) approximately 40 million years ago through a mutation, making us entirely dependent on dietary intake. Guinea pigs share this same genetic loss, which is why they are used as animal models in vitamin C research.
In 1933, Reichstein achieved the first industrial synthesis of ascorbic acid (the Reichstein process), making vitamin C the first vitamin synthesised on an industrial scale. This breakthrough made vitamin C affordable for the entire world population. The process, with modifications, still forms the basis of commercial vitamin C production today.

Sources: Lind J. (1753). A Treatise of the Scurvy. | Holst A., Frölich T. (1907). Journal of Hygiene. | Funk C. (1912). Journal of State Medicine. | Albert Szent-Györgyi Nobel Lecture (1937). | Stryer L. Biochemistry, 8th Ed. (2015). | Carpenter KJ. The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C. Cambridge University Press (1986).