Re: Vitamin C

Harvey Newstrom (harv@gate.net)
Sun, 4 Jan 1998 23:25:29 -0500


At 2:40am -0500 1/5/98, Joao Pedro wrote:
>And Harvey Newstrom also wrote:
>> Chimps and guinea pigs can produce their own ascorbic acid, which screwed
>> up many early vitamin C studies on them.
>
>Harvey is wrong, at least judging from my sources -- "Biochemistry" by
>Lubert Stryer (1995) page 454 --, primates and guinea pigs cannot
>synthesize ascorbic acid.

Whoops! You are right that I am wrong. I had it exactly backwards.
Primates and guinea pigs CANNOT synthesize ascorbic acid, while most other
mammals can. This unique difference is what confused early researches
studying vitamin C intake on these creatures. I forgot for a moment that
we humans are just primates and rats.

--
Harvey Newstrom <mailto:harv@gate.net>
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