Abstract
In previous publications from this laboratory1-5 it has been shown that fresh plant and fruit juices contain an antigoitrous agent when tested on immature rabbits maintained on a goitrogenic diet of alfalfa hay and oats. (The goitrogenic effect of this diet is greatly enhanced by cyanide.) It was shown that this antigoitrous effect was in general inversely proportional to the iodine reducing capacity and that treating the fresh juice with copper salts destroyed or lessened this antigoitrous effect. Our data further indicated that the antigoitrous agent was probably identical with ascorbic acid but because of the lack of crystalline ascorbic acid on the one hand and the presence of iodine (also an antigoitrous agent), on the other, in all these extracts we were unable to prove it.
About 2 years ago one of us 6 simplified Szent-Györgyi's and Waugh and King's method of extracting ascorbic acid and by utilizing iris leaves, which are extremely rich in ascorbic acid, has prepared sufficient quantities of this hormone in crystalline form for these experiments, which were carried out as follows: Young guinea pigs weighing between 150 and 250 gm. were placed on a diet of alfalfa hay and rolled oats. (This diet produces scurvy in from 15 to 20 days. Pigs maintained on this diet when injected with the thyrotropic factor develop more marked exophthalmos and thyroid hyperplasia and more quickly than when given greens daily in addition.) They were injected with 1/2 to 2 cc. of ox anterior pituitary extract prepared after Loeb and Bassett's method and given 25 to 100 mg. of crystalline ascorbic acid by mouth daily. The pigs were sacrificed at various intervals and the principal data of 22 are given in Table I.
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