SC - Substitutions

[jeffrey stewart heilveil]

On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Alderton, Philippa wrote:

> is Vitamin C, and considering how many things we need Vitamin C for our
> daily food processing, anybody allergic to it would not be alive for very
> long- it would be a bit like being allergic to water.

Erm, no and no.

Citric acid is chemically known as 2-hydroxy-1,2,3-propanetricarboxylic
acid. It is produced by "mycological fermentation [...] using crude
sugar solutions." Use includes acidulant in beverages, confectionery,
etc. (Merck Index, 1989, p 363) 

Vitamin C is also known as ascorbic acid (or rather L-ascorbic acid; if
you don't know what the L means you probably don't care either[1]),
or L-3-ketothreohexuronic acid. It was originally isolated from the
adrenal cortex of the ox, used as an antimicrobial and antioxidant in
foodstuffs (ibid, p 130-1).

Two quite different creatures. And I personally know of one person with
a vitamin C intolerance. Makes life kind of interesting due to its
prevalence is prepared food.

As to classical allergy, I doubt it somewhat due to the size of the
molecule in question (app. 176 Dalton, IIRC); normally only molecules
over a certain size elicit antibody responses (which are required for
allergy).

/UlfR

[1] OK. Look at your two hands. They are just the same (five fingers and
a thumb is the normal allotment, some are born with more or less, some
remove all or part of them at a later time). But turn as you may, there
is no way you can mistake a right hand for a left hand. Some molecules
come in similar "flavors".  The L stands for levo (from the latin for
left), and the alternative is D, for dextro (lat.: rigth). 

- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                  par.leijonhufvud at labtek.ki.se
Word of the Day: autodarwinate
                -- Stephen Hocking



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