The Action of Reducing Agents on the Antiscorbutic Factor Inactivated by Aeration

THE greatest difficulty in the chemnical manipulation of the antiscorbutic factor is the readiness with which this principle is inactivated by oxidation. Not only does this impediment limit the scope of the investigation by vastly restricting the choice of methods but it adds greatly to the labours of the investigator, since doses have to be prepared daily during the testing period of six weeks. Storage of active fractions in bulk under conditions which prevent oxidation is not always suitable. It is therefore evident that if the activity of the antiscorbutic vitamin lost by oxidation in the process of fractionation could be regenerated, it would be of the utmost importance in facilitating research in this field of vitamin chemistry, apart from the valuable information it would contribute to this elusive problem.