A brief history of the history of the therapeutic use of ascorbic acid on influenza

A Introduction

"Finally, that one of the simplest of diseases managed to utterly confound us for so long, at the cost of millions of lives, even after we had stumbled across an unequivocal cure. It makes you wonder how many incurable ailments of the modern world - depression, autism, hypertension, obesity - will turn out to have equally simple solutions, once we are able to see them in the correct light. What will we be slapping our foreheads about sixty years from now, wondering how we missed something so obvious?"
Jason Allen Mayberry, Scurvy and Vitamin C, Food and Drug Law, Winter 2004, Class and 3L Paper, April 27, 2004
http://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm

"The highest levels of vitamin C accumulation in the body are in the eye lens, adrenal gland, pituitary gland, leukocytes, and brain, while saliva and plasma have very little vitamin C content."
Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Scurvy (Maurice Shils, James Olson, Moshe Shike, Catherine Ross eds., 1999) Ref:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/221145295/27915730-Modern-nutrition-in-Health-and-Disease-9th-ed-pdf

B Ancient History

Scurvy was known to the ancient Egyptians who wrote that onions cured it. Hippocrates mentioned it in passing, it would have been rare in the sunny Mediterranean where fresh produce grew abundantly.

Northern white ceder - Thuja occidentalis

C Medieval Era

(Information about C_Medieval_Era goes here)

D Modern Era

Scott

History

E Summary

We knew how to cure scurvy in 1500BC, with onions. (30 mg per onion)

During the warm period between 0 AD and 1300AD virtually nothing was written about it, mostl anecdotes fo mhigh altitide or cold places.

In 1497 Vasco de Gama showed the first examples of "sea scurvy".

In 1540 Jacques Cartier was told by Dom Agaya how to cure scurvy with pine needle tea. (400mg per cup)

Between the years of 1500 and 1800, scurvy was the leading cause of naval death, killing more sailors than all other diseases,

disasters, and battles combined.

Early Egyptian described the symptoms of scurvy, many authors point to The Ebers Papyrus from 1500BC that lists the symptoms of scurvy and suggests to eat onions according to the NSF nutrient datbase ocntain 11.8mg per 16-g (1 cup), earleir works list an onion as haing 30g. Perhaps those were beter or larger onions althouigh an aveage 9io is about a cup, chipped, rouhgly. At ay rate folata and C are the only to vitamins found in onoins and even agt 11.8g per cup that really isn't uch. Possily ot enoh. If onions use dothve 30mg of C that wulod make the Egyptian cure more practical. Also "bitter herbs" would have been a sorc eof ascorbte, all leaves are. For thousands of years, bitter herbs have been used in alternative healing. Known as "bitters," these herbs can affect physiological reactions within the body, working as an astringent, a tonic, a relaxer, a stomachic, and an internal cleanser. In particular, bitter herbs have been used to improve digestion and counter inflammation. http://herbs.lovetoknow.com/List_of_Bitter_Herbs http://www.naturalremedies.org/horehound/ http://www.livingnaturally.com/ns/DisplayMonograph.asp?StoreID=E32FA6C399AB4C99897032581851D45D&DocID=bottomline-whitehorehound

Hippocrates described them as well but the disease was so rare in the sunny climate the early GReeks, Byzantines and Arabs need and fruit was an integral part of diet than the disease as virtually unknown. Once wheat, which contained no vitamin C became a daily staple things began to change. Keep in mind it was tremendously hotter as well in the Geek and ROman era and because of the low population nutritious food was natnat - because all plant use C eating any eaves will provide some in fact eating any vegale will prvoce soe, no pat can exist without it. But jsut as the hian body sotes it in diefferne plaed plants dont sotsr ay in the seeds, so grain are notorously deificnet as are seed based diets. Scuvy seems to be more of aprbe i ncld lcimates, wih cmake ssnese, 2/3 of ocur caloris go to therigeniuss or the mammaloan swarblloded propery ot regularin teeorature by brinngf calries. OS in codle lcimats there wasll be a greater number of chemical reactions whih cwil reuiare arte rnuebr of the scotba enyxze to faciliutate tho reacotns and tuis more C is eqiured in a ocld climate than is ina warm clmates. The facts ist's oclder now means overall our need fo raascorbate has incresaed sine ht eisme hippocrates recognies the diseas byt etoend it only in passing - apparenlty jst just wanst worth noting prealo becau of rarity.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=GsWrPTMaLbwC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=scurvy+in+ancient+greece&source=bl&ots=GDa1r0XBzX&sig=vegzWcQqvPCjtsOK3eM_lWHCCGE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=B-YrVdW9KI-QyQTczYGoCQ&ved=0CFUQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=scurvy%20in%20ancient%20greece&f=false

In the the 13th century crusaders contracted scurvy sometimes during lent and blamed the eel they ate at the time instead of meat, despite being the middle east, onions had been lost from institutional memory as a cure.

In 1540, a French explorer named Jacques Cartier learned of a remedy for scurvy from the Native Americans of lower Canada, which was prepared by extracting the needles of pine trees with hot water. The first English reference to the disease occurred in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1565.

lost fou d In 1535, when Jacques Cartier landed in Canada for the second time, he sailed up the SaintLawrence, and spent the winter at Stadacone. His ships were frozen in the ice for five months. A strange disease attacked the indigenous population, and then the French sailors. In a two month period, almost all Cartier's men became sick. Facing such a tragic situation, the explorer carried out an examination on a dead sailor and described what would later be called scurvy. The Indians were able to extract a medicine from a tree called Anneda. This medicine worked quickly and allowed the sailors to leave Canada in May. However, 25 of the 112 sailors had died during that icy winter.

http://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/ishm/vesalius/VESx2002x08x01x002x006.pdf

http://www.bmj.com/content/2/2323/77

http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPNS%2FPNS12_03%2FS0029665153000553a.pdf

http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/35/3/556.full.pdf

History Highlights of Nutrition
http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/courses/ansc221v/histnote.htm