Ascorbic Acid

Though the Age of Discovery was fueled by the molecules of the spice trade, it was the lack of another molecule that hampered it.  Scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency, had an enormous impact on the sailors taking part in expeditions around the world, with symptoms ranging from exhaustion and weakness to foul breath and diarrhea to death.  With a weak and dying crew, a ship could not possibly function efficiently and could not stay at sea for too long a time.  In fact, most of the deaths on Magellan's expedition around the world had been caused by this terrible disease.  Despite the countless losses caused by scurvy, many saw it as an inevitablity, and though there were several alleged remedies for the disease, a lack of knowledge as to what it was caused by made most efforts to cure it futile.

Many believed that scurvy was the result of a diet consisting of too much salted meat or not enough fresh meat, as opposed to a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Every once in a blue moon, however, a remedy to combat the disease actually worked.  The French learned one such cure from the native Americans in Quebec who suggested an infusion of needles from a spruce tree.  In the early 1600s, English Naval Captain James Lancaster took a bottle of lemon juice with him on his expeditions, dosing any crewmember who showed signs of scurvy with three teaspoons of the juice every morning.  The result were near scurvy free expeditions to the southern tip of Africa and beyond.  The first ship captain to ensure that his crew remained completely scurvy free, however, was Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy, who insisted on maintaining high levels of diet and hygiene aboard his vessels, during his time at sea in the late 1700s.  His crew, with a diet of vitamin C-rich foods was able to accomplish numerous impressive feats, such as the discovery of Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef, the first circumnavigation of New Zealand, the first charting of the Pacific Northwest coastline, and the first crossing of the Antarctic Circle.

Despite the successes seen on board several ships concerning the cure for scurvy, many ship captains ignored the preventatives and remedies that had been proven to be effective, and instead used others such as vinegar, salt water, cinnamon, and whey, which did not work.  Even an experiment performed in 1747 by Scottish naval surgeon James Lind was not enough to convince the thick-headed masses.  In the experiment he gave eight scurvy-afflicted sailors the false remedies named above, and gave two others oranges and lemons.  The two given the fruit were seaworthy again in less than a week, but the others were not so fortunate.  Even by the early 1900s, some expeditioners ignored the correct measures to prevent scurvy, and again it was seen how important a Vitamin C-rich diet was.  A 1911 Norwegian expedition to the south pole was made successful through a diet based on fresh seal and dog meat, which contained vitamin C.  A 1912 British expedition to the south pole, however, never made it back, as their commander, Robert Falcon Scott, still believed that scurvy was caused by tainted meat.

The importance of ascorbic acid in the diet is now clear today, though we are still not completely sure of all the roles it plays in the body.  Had this important molecule been discovered and accepted as a cure for scurvy earlier, the world as we know it might not be the same.  Empires such as Portugal and the Netherlands who got an early start in exploration and colonization would have been more successful and would have taken more land, leaving little for later-developing empires like Britain to discover.  It is in these ways that ascorbic acid has played an enormous role in how the course of human history has developed and how it has forever changed the way we live.