Vitamin C : asam askorbat

Sejarah

In early times, long sea voyages deprived sailors of fresh fruits and vegetables, often
resulting in death from scuvy. Thr beneficial effects of citrus fruits in the treatment of
scurvy was recognized long before the anticorbutic factor was identified in 1932 as
ascorbic acid, independenly in the laboratories of szent-gyorgyi and king. The work of
aschoff and koch in 1919 followed by that of hojer in 1924 and wolbach and howe 1926
defined the link betweem a scorbutic diet and defect in collagen synthesis in connective
tissues and its reversal by a diet containing fresh fruit juices

Pada masa-masa awal, pelayaran laut yang panjang merampas pelaut buah dan sayuran
segar, yang seringkali mengakibatkan kematian karena penyakit kudis. Efek bermanfaat
dari buah sitrus dalam pengobatan kudis diakui jauh sebelum faktor anticorbutic
diidentifikasi pada tahun 1932 sebagai asam askorbat, secara independen di
laboratorium szent-gyorgyi dan raja. Karya aschoff dan koch pada tahun 1919 diikuti oleh
hojer pada tahun 1924 dan wolbach dan howe 1926 mendefinisikan kaitan antara diet
scorbutic dan defek sintesis kolagen pada jaringan ikat dan pembalikannya dengan diet
yang mengandung jus buah segar.

Ikatan

Ascoorbic acid and its oxidized form, l-dehydroascorbic acid, prosses vitamin c activity.
Further oxidation of dehydroascorbic acid leads to complete loss of vitamin activity.
Ascorbic acid is highly soluble in water and is easily destroyed by heat, light, trace of
copper or iron. And oxidative enzimes.

Biochemical and physiological functions

Ascorbic acid is an essential nutrien only for humans and a few other species who lack l-
gulono-y-lactone oxidase, the last enzime in the ascorbic acid biosynthesis from glucose.
Ever since the discovery of vitamin c, scientists have been intriguedas to how ascorbic
acid deficiency can leadto such diverse symptoms as ex-hibited in scurvy. The historic link
beetwen collagen synthrsis and ascorbic acid dominated our thinking about the
biochemical sunctions of ascorbic acid. Collagen synthesis is an elaborate process of
protein synthesis, post-translational modifications, protein secretion, and extracellular
matrix formation. Collagen is a unique animal protein asup to one-third of its amino acid
residues are glycine with an abundance of proline or 4-hyroxyproline, and a few recidues
of 3-hydroxyproline and hydroxylycine. Ascorbate plays an important role in
hydroxylation of proline and lysine resedues by keeping prosthetic iron of hydroxylase
enzimes in its required reduced from.
Only in recent years has it been appreciated that ascorbic acid has important functions in
many cellular reactions and processes in addition to its known role in collagen synthesis.
A number of dioxygenases that contain prosthetic fe2+ and monooxygenases with
prosthetic cu+ are stimulated by ascorbic acid, these reactions are important steps in the
synthesis of collagen, norepinephrine, carnitine, and saveral neurpeptide. In spite of the
fact that ascorbic acid affects a variety of biochemical processes, none of these effects is
specific to ascorbic acid. Many other reducing agents can replace ascorbic acid

From a few of such reactions that we have understood at the molecular level, it has
became apparent that ascorbic acid does not directly participate in enzime-catalyzed
conversion of substrate to product. Instead , the vitamin regenerates prosthetic metal
ions in these enzymes in their required reduced forms. This is in agreement with its
other antioxidant fuctions such as scavenging of free radicals. Ascorbate and other
antioxidant nutrient are presumed to playa pivotal role in minimizing the demage from
oxidative product including free radicals. This protective function is two-fold. One
function is to reduce the already oxidized groups in prosthetic centers of some enzymes,
and the second is to scavenge the oxidants and free radicals (see antioxidant function of
vitamin).

Deficiency symptoms

the relationship between ascorbic acid nutriture and a variety of clinical conditions has
been reviewed by clemetson. Irritability, retardation of growth, anemia, poor wound
healing, increased tendency to bleed, and susceptibility to infections are signs of
ascorbate deficiency. Petechiae, bleeding gums, weak cartilages, and tanderness in legs
are some of the hallmark symptoms of scurvy.

Hypervitaminosis

With linus paulings strong advocation, thousands of people are ingesting amounts of
ascorbic acid up to 200 times RDA without significant toxity. However, occasionally
complications like kidney stones, gastroinstestinal disturbances, interference with copper
and iron metabolism, and a conditioning to megadoses may occur.