Abstract
IT is announced by the Stockholm correspondent of The Times that the Nobel Prize for Medicine for 1937 has been awarded to Prof. Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi, of the University of Szeged, in Hungary, for his work on vitamin C. More than fifteen years ago, experiments carried out by Szent-Györgyi on the adrenalectomized animal suggested to him that the adrenal cortex is in some way involved in biological oxidation. A detailed study of different animal, vegetable and synthetic oxidizing systems was made, but no connexion could be found between these and the function of the adrenal cortex. However, nine years ago, evidence was obtained that the cortex is in some way connected with the peroxidase system and at the same time a reducing substance, considered to be a 'hexuronic acid', was isolated from it. The same acid was also found in plants and shown to be an essential part of the 'reducing factor' of plant juices, being apparently connected with the function of the peroxidase system. Since the 'reducing factor' is found in fruit juices which contain vitamin C and cure both human and experimental scurvy, the antiscorbutic potency of the 'hexuronic acid' was investigated,
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Prof. A. von Szent-Györgyi: Nobel Prize for Medicine. Nature 140, 798 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140798a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140798a0