All issues > Volume 4(1); 1961

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1961;4(1):27-36. Published online March 31, 1961.

ASCORBIC ACID CONTENT IN BLOOD OF THE KOREAN CHILDREN AND IN THE BREAST MILK OF MOTHERS

Yuns Eun Moon¹, Eui Sun Lim¹, Yoon Soo Kim², Chung Suk Song²

¹Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University College of Medicine
²Department of Biochemistry, Yonsei University College of Medicine

Abstract

The source of ascorbic acid in Korean foods is vegetables. Fruits are expensive during the winter time and the intake of fruits of low class people is negligible. Most vegetables are used cooked or as “Kimchi” during the winter time. The intake of the raw vegetables is very little except in the summer when tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelons etc. ate abundant. The winter kimchi, which, is a kind seasoned pickle of law cabbages and radishes, is pickled in November and consumed throughout the winter and early part of the spring in Korea. The ascorbic acid concentration in the kimchi is decreases as the time passes and so kimchi contains more ascorbic acid in the early winter and less in the early spring. The monthly variation of ascorbic acid concentration in blood and milk of the korean, as is shown below, paralells with these facts. In order to investigate the monthly variation of ascorbic acid contcenration in blood and milk, ascorbic acid determination was done from November 1958 to November 1959. At the same time the comparison of the ascorbic acid concentration in the blood of delivering mothers with that of umbilical cord of the fetus, and of that in the blood of breast fed child with that in the blood of weaned child were done. Materials : The blood samples were obtained from students of medical school, nursing school and hospital personal, and in that of the children were obtained from the well child at the well baby cinic. Blood of the delivering mothers and of the fetus were from the department of obstetrics. Most milks were from the mothers who visited the department of Pediatrics, colostrums were from the department of obstetrics. Some of the blood and milk samples were from a. farmer village vicinity of Seoul.
Methods
: The plasma ascorbic acid determination is done by the micro-method of Farmer and Abt(2,6-dichlorophenol indophenonl titration method). The concentraton of ascorbic acid in milk is also deterimined by 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol titration method. Results : The monthly variation of ascorbic acid concentration in blood and in milk is shown in table 1 and 4. The comparison of the level in blood and milk is shown in figure 4. High value is shown in the winter ; 0.6 mg. per cent in blood and 4.5 mg. per cent in milk. The ascorbic acid content is decreased gradually until Nfey and June* Thereafter the level is increasing again and is showing the highest in August; 0.69 mg. per cent in blood, 4.54 mg. per cent in milk. Age variation of ascorbic acid concentration in the children is shown in table 2, and figure 1 The concentration of ascorbic acid in plasma of under 2 year of age who were breast fed showed the high level averaging 0.99 mg. per cent. The concentration of ascorbic acid in plasma of weaned children under 3 years of age showed the lowest level averaging 0.3 mg. per cent. The concentration of ascorbic acid in plasma of 4 years old children showed higher level than that of 3 years old ones averaging 0.3 mg. per cent. This is coincident with the fact that breast fed children take enough ascorbic acid from the mother’s milk but weaned children take very little vegetables but as they grow, they take more vegetables. The ascorbic acid concentration in umbilical cord blood is much higher then that of in maternal blood as is shown in table 3 and figure 2. The comparison of ascoric add concentration in mother’s blood with that in her milk is shown in table 5. The ascorbic acid concentration in colostrum and that in matured milk is compared in table 6 and figure 3. Colostrum contains more(4.8 mg.per cent) than matured milk(2.38 mg. per cent)

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