• DOI:10.1111/j.1651-2227.2009.01239.x
• Corpus ID: 11077461

Nobel Prize 1937 to Albert von Szent‐Györgyi: identification of vitamin C as the anti‐scorbutic factor

@article{Zetterstrm2009NobelP1,
  title={Nobel Prize 1937 to Albert von Szent‐Gy{\"o}rgyi: identification of vitamin C as the anti‐scorbutic factor},
  author={Rolf H Zetterstr{\"o}m},
  journal={Acta P{\ae}diatrica},
  year={2009},
  volume={98}
}

• R. Zetterström
• Published 1 May 2009
• Chemistry
• Acta Pædiatrica

When awarding the Nobel Prize in 1939, the staff of professors at Karolinska Institute stated that Albert von SzentGyörgyi (Fig. 1) received it ‘for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid’. When working on cellular oxidation–reduction processes and elucidating the role of fumaric acid in what SzentGyörgyi named ‘the carboxylic acid oxidizing process’ (Fig. 2) and, which was later on completed by Hans Krebs, Nobel Laureate in 1953, and who named it the citric acid or tricarbolxylic acid cycle, discovered an oxidizing–reducing compound in the adrenal glands, which turned out to be the anti-scorbutic factor. Undoubtedly, the discovery of Szent-Györgyi, that succinate, fumarate, malate and oxalacetate are not metabolized in cellular respiration, but act as catalysts is of fundamental biological importance. This essay will, however, concentrate upon the way in which Szent-Györgyi by chance identified that ascorbic acid is the anti-scorbutic factor or vitamin C. The clinical implication of this discovery will also be discussed.