Vitamin C is best known for its protection against scurvy and the common cold . Fruits rich in vitamin
C are also powerful antioxidants that protect cellular DNA from being damaged by oxidation. Serena Guarnieri and co-researchers in the Division of Human Nutrition at the University of Milan, Italy, suggest that vitamin C pills alone do not have the same protective effect as fruits like orange. The test subjects were given a single glass of blood-orange juice, vitamin-C-fortified water, or sugar water to drink. The blood-orange juice and the fortified water had 150 milligrams of vitamin C each, whereas the sugar water had none. From the test subjects, blood samples were taken 3 hours and 24 hours after their drink. Blood plasma vitamin C levels increased after drinking both the juice and the fortified water. DNA damage through oxidation was significantly less in the samples taken from volunteers who had ingested orange juice. Vitamin-C-fortified water and the sugar water had no protective effect. Hence, it may be assumed that vitamin C is not the only chemical responsible for antioxidant protection; there is something more at
work here. Vitamin C is provided in a matrix in fruits with many other beneficial substances which may interact with each other. Other nutrition researchers have suggested that sugars in juice interact with vitamin C to generate the antioxidant effect. The effect of phytochemicals (cyanidin-3-glucoside, flavanones and carotenoids) found in oranges must be studied further.