The antiscorbutic value of commercially concentrated orange juice

Abstract does not appear. First page follows.

Introduction

Concentrated orange juice prepared commercially has only recently been placed on the market. So far as we are aware, all reports on the antiscorbutic property of concentrated juices are based on work with laboratory preparations, except that of Chaney,⁽¹⁾ who reported on the use of a concentrated bottled orange juice as a supplemental lunch for school children and suggested that the favorable results obtained may have been due, in part, to the antiscorbutic principle of the orange juice. It was, therefore, deemed desirable to ascertain whether or not these commercial products retained the antiscorbutic property to as great an extent as did the laboratory preparations.

It was realized as long ago as the sixteenth century that oranges and lemons possessed great value as preventives of scurvy,⁽²⁾ but at that time little significance was given to this fact and more attention was paid to limes and other fresh fruits. Orange and lemon juice have now been studied more than any other antiscorbutic substance. Limes and lime juice are no longer regarded as excellent sources of vitamin C. Chick, Hume, and Skelton⁽³⁾ found lime juice to be only one-fourth as potent as lemon juice, while lemon and orange juice are considered equal in value in this respect. Oranges and lemons have the highest known antiscorbutic value and are, therefore, almost always taken as a standard in comparative work.