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Hydrojuglone and Apparent Vitamin C in Walnuts

Abstract

PREVIOUS communications from these laboratories1–4 have shown that associated with the remarkably high concentrations of true vitamin C in different tissues of the walnut (Juglans regia) and allied species are considerable amounts of non-specific dye reductants provisionally termed5 ‘apparent vitamin C'. The proportion of apparent vitamin C in the total dye reductants varies from less than 5 per cent in the endocarp to more than 90 per cent in resting buds and catkins. We have now obtained evidence that this so-called apparent vitamin C in walnuts is mainly, if not entirely, a derivative of hydrojuglone or 1 : 4 : 5 trihydroxynaphthalene :

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DAGLISH, C., WOKES, F. Hydrojuglone and Apparent Vitamin C in Walnuts. Nature 162, 179–180 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162179a0

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