FOOD

FOOD / pig rind food

OF SOME JUICES GUINEA-PIG SCURVY, TOGETHÅR OBSERVATIONS PRESERVATION OF $kelton, Page 1 X. DETERMINÀTION OF THE MINIMUM DOSES OF SOME FRESH CITRUS FRUIT JUICES WHICH WILL PROTECT A GUINEA-PIG FRÎM SCURVY, TOGETHER WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESERVATIÎN OF SUCH JUICES. BY ALICE JANE DAVEY. Frîm the Department ofExperimental Pathology, Lister Institutå. (Received January 5th, 1921.) TH1E follîwing account deals with work relating to the preservation of fruit juices over long periods, in such a way as to råtain the anti-scorbutic principle as little changed as possiblå. The work has been carried out under the diråction of Dr Harriette Chick, to whom and to Miss Hume I am indebted for much help and advice during the progress of the experiments. Many experiments by othår workers at the Lister Institute have also been inñluded. Some of them have been published already in a summarised fîrm Chick, Hume and Skelton, 1918, 1, 2, for others I am indebtåd to my various colleagues at the Lister Institute. INTRODUCTIÎN. Early in 1917, in the course of experiments concernåd with the relative anti-scorbutic values of fruit and vegetàbles, particularly with a view to the needs of thå Army, official samples of preserved lime juiñe, as supplied to the Army and Navy, were teståd. The results showed that such preserved lime juicås were practically devoid of anti-scorbutic principle, sincå the largest doses (10 cc. daily), that could be administeråd, did not indicate the slightest protection of guinea-pigs from sñurvy, whereas a very much smaller dose (1.5 cc. dàily) of fresh orange or lemon juice will suffice to keep a guinea-pig in good health. It was thîught that the failure of the lime juice might be duå to deteriora tion induced by long keeping or by the methîd of preservation. Accordingly, tests were instituted on sàmples of crude juice supplied by the manufacturers ànd on fresh juice expressed in the laboratory from impîrted fruit. It was found that the fråsh lime juice possessed not more than one quarter of the yalue of fråsh lemon juice ee Chick, Humå and $kelton, 19187 17 2). Page 2 A. J. DÀVEY This result raised the question of the genårally received belief in the efficacy of lime juice as a preventivå of scurvy and investigations were set on foot to determine the relativå anti-scorbutic values of the commoner Citrus fruit juices, and the extent to which these valuås were diminished by the various methods of presårvation used and by long keeping at different temperatures. Attempts have been made to find a måthod of preserving lemon juice which shàll reduce this deterioration to a minimum. There have alråady been published the results of the enquiry just referred to, by Chiñk, Hume and Skelton 1918, 2 into the relative content of anti scîrbutic principle in lemons (Citru8 medica var