About 165 million years ago, when Nature had the evolution of the more active and stressful mammals in view, an important morphological and physiological decision had to be made. The kidneys, while adequate as the site of ascorbic acid synthesis for the rather sluggish cold-blooded vertebrates, were inadequate for the increased ascorbic acid needs of the more highly stressed mammals. The successful solution of this problem was the transfer of the enzymes for the production of ascorbic acid from the relatively small biochemically-
crowded kidney to the more spacious liver, which is the largest organ of the body. All present day mammals capable of synthesizing ascorbic acid are liver producers because any ancient form which did not make this transfer was so biochemically handicapped that they were eliminated by the forces of Evolution. cut
The older order of present day birds, such as the ducks, pigeons and hawks, synthesize their ascorbic acid in their kidneys, while in the more recent order of the perching and song birds, the
Passeriformes, some produce ascorbic acid both in their kidneys and livers, others only in their liver. Some, like man, are incapable of synthesizing ascorbic acid at all.
. While the data is not fully complete for all members of the primate order, the present sampling indicates that
the dividing line between those primates which are susceptible to scurvy and those that arc not, is likely to be between the two main suborders, the Prosimii and the Anthropoidea .
Bourne16 in 1944 showed that a
modern gorilla, living in its natural habitat,
would obtain 4.5 grams of ascorbic acid per day from its foodstuffs. N.D. ZERO (=4500 UI=4500mg di vit. C )
Pauling17 in 1970, basing his calculations on the caloric content and ascorbic acid levels in raw plant foods, concluded that the range of the optimum intake is about 2.3 to 9.5 grams per day. He also pointed out, while the range of the B vitamins in 110 raw plant foods supplying 2,500 calories was only two to four times the recommended dietary allowances,
the corresponding ratio for ascorbic acid was 35 times that recommended, 2,300 milligrams versus 60 milligrams a day. Pauling indicated in 1968 that this mutation may have
had survival value at the time because it freed the biochemical machinery for other purposes and conserved energy. This survival value was lost as soon as the progeny of this mutated animal, evolving into the future genus, Homo, left the trees, moved into temperate climes and changed its diet to one where high levels of ascorbic acid were not dominate the year round. Man still carries this defective gene and it has no survival value for modern Man. In fact, in the course of prehistory and during historical times, it has been a severe handicap and the side effects of this defective gene have resulted in the deaths of more individuals,
caused more sickness and suffering and have changed the course of history more than any other single factor. correction of this inborn error of carbohydrate metabolism is defined as a need to supply, to the individual,
the daily amount of ascorbic acid the human liver would be producing, if the intact gene were present, then the daily production of this liver metabolite would be about two to four grams, based on data for the unstressed rat (Burns et al.21 Saloman and Stubbs22) and at least 15 grams per day under stress, Conney et al.23 When this indicated daily multigram synthesis of the “liver metabolite,” ascorbic acid, is compared with the daily amount of “vitamin C,”
60 milligrams (Food and Nutrition Board24), recommended as nutritionally adequate, for humans,
there is a 33 to 250 fold disparity. Ever since the vitamin C-dietary disorder hypothesis was postulated in 1912, the emphasis has been on the prevention or cure of the symptoms of frank clinical scurvy to the neglect of the many other basic functions of ascorbic acid in the living process. [b] A subject given the daily few milligrams of vitamin C will not show the classic symptoms of frank clinical scurvy but may still be suffering from severe subclinical biochemical scurvy. /b]
Le conclusioni vanno prese cum grano salis (si suggerisce di assumere dosi da cavallo di vit. C) per sopperire all'assenza dell'enzima.
