Metabolism of ascorbic acid and ascorbic-2-sulfate in man and the subhuman primate

Man does not catabolize ascorbate to CO2, whereas the monkey does catabolize ascorbate and ascorbate sulfate to CO2 when these compounds are given orally. However, it takes the same length of time to produce frank scurvy in both man and the monkey, thus indicating that the comparative storage, rate of use, and mode of metabolism of ascorbate is similar in both species. Preliminary feeding and isotope studies conducted on monkeys are in agreement with the fact that only a small amount of labeled ascorbate or ascorbate sulfate equilibrated with body stores. These results are in agreement with published ascorbic acid requirements of 10 mg/kg body weight. In our experiments, 250 mg/day had to be fed to a 10-kg monkey to completely clear all signs of scurvy and return blood ascorbate levels to normal. Ascorbic acid administered intravenously to monkeys appears to equilibrate completely with the ascorbate pool(s). Ascorbate sulfate was found to be a urinary metabolite of both ascorbic-1-14C acid and ascorbic-6-14C acid fed orally to monkeys.