The antiscorbutic property of raw,dried and cooked apples and bananas

Abstract

Apples and bananas are the two most generally used of all the fruits consumed by man in this country. The use of these foods is advocated not only for healthy adults and infants 1 but indeed for the sick. 1 These two fruits have been classed for a long time as antiscorbutic agents. It is therefore important to determine as near quantitatively as possible their antiscorbutic potency in the raw state and after subjection to heat treatment such as is ordinarily employed in the preservation and cooking of these materials.

Experiments have been conducted on guinea pigs on a basal diet adequate in all respects except the antiscorbutic vitamine. To determine the presence or absence of this latter factor in raw, dried and cooked apples and bananas a daily allotment of these foods has been fed to the animals. We have found that a per diem dose of 10 grams of raw apples or of bananas will protect a guinea pig against scurvy for three months. On the contrary an equivalent amount of these foods cooked at 100° C. for fifteen minutes or dried at 55-60° C. (with the exception of apples which showed some antiscorbutic potency) or dried at 55-60° C. and cooked for fifteen minutes at 100° C. will not protect the animals against scurvy.