Irwin Stone
Encyclopedia
Irwin Stone was an American biochemist
Biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...

, chemical engineer
Chemical engineer
In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...

, and author. He was the first to use ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid is a naturally occurring organic compound with antioxidant properties. It is a white solid, but impure samples can appear yellowish. It dissolves well in water to give mildly acidic solutions. Ascorbic acid is one form of vitamin C. The name is derived from a- and scorbutus , the...

 in the food processing
Food processing
Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry...

 industry as a preservative
Preservative
A preservative is a naturally occurring or synthetically produced substance that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc. to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes....

, and originated and published the hypothesis that humans require much larger amounts of Vitamin C
Vitamin C
Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. In living organisms ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by protecting the body against oxidative stress...

 for optimal health than is necessary to prevent scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...

.

Food preservative work

In 1934, Stone, while director of the enzyme and fermentation research laboratory for the Wallerstein Company, worked on the antioxidant properties of ascorbate (also known as Vitamin C), which had then recently been described by Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Albert Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt was a Hungarian physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937. He is credited with discovering vitamin C and the components and reactions of the citric acid cycle...

 only two years earlier. He was awarded 26 patents in industrial chemistry, mainly related to fermentation science, pharmaceutical techniques, and nutrient cultivation.

He discovered he could use ascorbate to keep foodstuffs fresh for longer, limiting the effects of exposure to air and oxidation. Stone obtained the first patents on an industrial application of ascorbic acid with three patent applications filed in 1935 and granted in 1939 and 1940.

Hypoascorbemia hypothesis

Dr. Stone's research in ascorbic acid continued and led to his interest in the disease, scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...

. By the late 1950s, Stone had formulated his hypothesis that scurvy was not a dietary disturbance, but a potentially fatal flaw in human genetics
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 that had suppressed an essential part of the mammalian biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

 and had been misunderstood by nutritionists. He proposed the name hypoascorbemia for the effects of this genetic defect. He proposed that ascorbate was not a vitamin
Vitamin
A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...

 required only in trace amounts, but was required by humans in relatively large daily quantities. He produced four papers, between 1965 and 1967, describing what he considered the true human requirement for ascorbate.

Stone experienced great difficulty in getting his ideas published. However, following his retirement from his position as chemist from the Wallerstein company, in 1971, he worked full time on ascorbate. He published numerous papers and a book, The Healing Factor, in 1972.

Irwin Stone introduced Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling
Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century...

 to Vitamin C
Vitamin C
Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. In living organisms ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by protecting the body against oxidative stress...

 and is recognised within orthomolecular medicine
Orthomolecular medicine
Orthomolecular medicine is a form of complementary and alternative medicine that seeks to maintain health and prevent or treat diseases by optimizing nutritional intake and/or prescribing supplements...

 as one of its founders. His research provided additional scientific background for the clinical results of megadose ascorbate treatments claimed by his contemporary, Dr Fred R. Klenner.

Both Linus Pauling and Albert Szent-Györgyi wrote forewords to The Healing Factor endorsing his ideas.

See also

  • Megavitamin therapy
    Megavitamin therapy
    Megavitamin therapy is the use of large doses of vitamins, often many times greater than the recommended dietary allowance in the attempt to prevent or treat diseases...

  • Vitamin C megadosage
    Vitamin C megadosage
    Vitamin C megadosage is the consumption of vitamin C in doses comparable to the amounts produced by the livers of most other mammals and well beyond the current Dietary Reference Intake...

  • Orthomolecular medicine
    Orthomolecular medicine
    Orthomolecular medicine is a form of complementary and alternative medicine that seeks to maintain health and prevent or treat diseases by optimizing nutritional intake and/or prescribing supplements...

  • Linus Pauling
    Linus Pauling
    Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century...

  • Archie Kalokerinos
    Archie Kalokerinos
    Archivides "Archie" Kalokerinos is an Australian physician. In 2000 he was awarded the title Greek Australian of the Century by the Melbourne-based Greek newspaper Neos Kosmos. He holds controversial opinions on a number of medical issues...


Papers

  • Stone, Irwin : Studies of a Mammalian Enzyme System for Producing Evolutionary Evidence on Man. Amer. J. Phys. Anthrop. 15, 83-85, 1965.
  • Stone, Irwin : On the Genetic Etiology of Scurvy. Acts Genet. Med. Gemellol. 15, 345-350,1966.
  • Stone, Irwin : Hypoascorbemia, the Genetic Disease Causing the Human Requirement for Exogenous Ascorbic Acid, Perspectives Bio. Med. 10, 133-134, 1966.
  • Stone, Irwin : The Genetic Disease, Hyposacorbemia: A Fresh Approach to an Ancient Disease and Some of its Medical Implications, Acta Genet Med. Gemellol. 16, 52-62. 1967.
  • Stone, Irwin : The Natural History of Ascorbic Acid in the Evolution of the Mammals and Primates and its Significance for Present Day Man. J. Orthomolecular Psychiatry 1: Nos. 2 & 3, 82-89, 1972.
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