What would be ancient ways to properly store vitamin C?

Comments

• Vorticity@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Here’s a really interesting article on how it was discovered that citrus would help. They were also able to preserve citrus and citrus juice with alcohol. They could also turn it into a concentrated syrup without too much loss of vitamin C.

  From what I just read, they didn’t do this, but dried citrus, when dried at a cool temperature, retains the majority of its vitamin C.

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  • Nighed@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    We then forgot how to cure it: www.bluesci.co.uk/posts/forgotten-knowledge#%3A~%….

    And had to rediscover it.

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  • Mothra@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    That’s a cool read, thanks for sharing

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• roguetrick@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Vitamin C is heat sensitive but pickling is fine and a good reason why pickled cabbage is popular in places with cold winter. Beyond that, it’s straight up foraging for greens and berries. Plenty of leafy greens allowed enough vitamin c to stave off scurvy.

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  • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Sauerkraut!

    And lots of other fermented products. Possiblities are endless, chances of success are high.

    I was also thinking dried fruit/berries, but I’m not sure how well that preserves vitamin C.

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    • roguetrick@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Drying can work to a degree if it’s cold, but it really depends on how you dry it since vitamin c is water soluble. Anything heat dried is out. And modern sauerkraut is pasturized so that’s pretty useless for vitamin C. Finally canned preserves are canned under high heat. These industrial processes are a major reason why scurvy was so hard to treat at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Nobody could figure it out because they kept heat treating potential solutions.

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  • Mothra@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Nice, thank you!

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  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I fucking love kimchi

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    • RBWells@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Just ate a kimchi grilled cheese, and yesterday had some with fried eggs. It is so delicious. I love sauerkraut too. Cabbage of any sort, cabbage is just an amazing food, good raw, burnt, and everything in between, delicious fermented, just good and ever so versatile.

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• mycelium_underground@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Cabbage.

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  • boatswain@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Sauerkraut is apparently a reasonable way to store vitamin C for a long time. I imagine cabbage in its own doesn’t keep too well.

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    • Mothra@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Cabbage does store better than most greens, but no, not as long as a preserve would.

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• Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Citrus.

  British sailors got the moniker “limey” because they usually had limes specicially to ward off scurvy.

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  • Mothra@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Yes, but you can’t shelf citrus for like a year. I’m asking about long life preservation methods, not necessarily for sailors back in the day but in general.

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    • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Jam, or other preserved fruits i would guess were common.

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    • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Fresh meat contains vitamin C, as most animals can synthesize it themselves. “Livestock” would have been the preservation method.

      Fermentation can develop vitamin C, depending on what you’re fermenting. Cabbage is probably the most famous example, but pretty much everything you ferment produces at least a little.

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    • breecher@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Apples was used as well. And they definitely can be stored for a year under the right conditions.

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  • breecher@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    But funnily enough scurvy was also called “the English disease” in some languages.

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• Lionheadbud@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Jam is the classic way to preserve fruit.

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  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Making jam involves heating the fruit, which destroys the ascorbic acid.

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    • Lionheadbud@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Jams still contain vitamin c, it is just reduced compared to fresh fruit

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• Rivalarrival@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  www.usni.org/magazines/…/finding-cure-scurvy

  Gilbert Blane was appointed to the staff of Admiral George Brydges Rodney as Physician to the Fleet in 1779. Blane was a medical reformer who was convinced by Lind’s original experiment with citrus and appreciated the need for a practical way of storing them. After considerable experimentation, he determined that adding 10 percent “spirits of wine” (i.e., distilled ethyl alcohol) to lemon juice would preserve it almost indefinitely, without destroying its beneficial properties.

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  • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    So like limoncello?

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• Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Fermented cabbage, AKA Sauerkraut.

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• Lionheadbud@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  It’s not ancient but blackcurrant syrup aka ribena was originally developed for this purpose when other fruit supplies were running low in Britain during the war

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• rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Dried chili peppers are a good source

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• rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Apparently meat contains enough vitamin c to fend off scurvy if you eat it fresh and raw (I don’t remember how raw it has to be, but definitely fresh). Depending on where your route takes you, that might have been an option.

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  • Mothra@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Yes, that’s an option but it’s not a long life preservation method which is what I’m asking about. It’s just hunting/ gathering fresh food like anywhere else.

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    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Yeah, that’s fair.

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    • innermeerkat@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Live animals were embarked. Besides, the liver is a good source vitamin C.

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    • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Preserved meat like salami has been around for quite a long time. My guess is it’s the same with fruit.

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  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I think life was pretty cheap in that time and place, so very little time, effort, or money was invested in the well being of crew in the lower ranks.

    That is to say, while it might have been possible to obtain fresh food, it often just wasnt a priority.

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    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      That wasn’t the question, though.

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• swordgeek@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  In fruit.

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  • rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Fresh fruit spoil easily. How do you preserve fruit for months without destroying the vitamin c, before refrigerators were a thing?

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    • splendoruranium@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Your body only needs tiny amounts of Vitamin C and you can easily store fruit like apples for more than half a year without refrigeration.

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    • czardestructo@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Lemons if stored correctly will last 10 months. My grand father would just toss them in a dark storage room in Greece and they lasted until the next harvest.

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• Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Limoncello instead of grog for the sailors

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• Bigfish@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Got a spruce tree? Grab the newer green tips on the branches and check it in some hot water. That tea is full of Vit C, and tastes like Christmas smells.

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• SaneMartigan@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Potatoes aren’t too bad a source IIRC.

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• vortexal@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I’m kind of surprised no one has said honey. While I can’t find exactly when honey was first used as a preservative, it’s believed that it was first used in ancient Egypt.

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• Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  oranges, anything related to citrus family.

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• P00ptart@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  In a living body impaled on a spike in Vlads front yard.

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• tyler@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Yeah. Fruit…

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  • Lembot_0004@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Almost everything has vitamin C. Except for water, sand and anchovies.

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    • paraplu@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I'm surprised by anchovies lacking it but you appear to be correct, even for raw anchovies. I tried looking at a handful of other raw fish and they also have no vitamin C.

      I guess that makes sense, if fish could supply vitamin C I can't imagine scurvy would've been a problem for long.

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