Ascorbic acid synthesis in certain guinea pigs.

Three guinea pigs fed a vitamin C-free diet manifested no symptoms of scurvy even after 4-8 months, normally increased in body weight and excreted quantities of ascorbic acid in urine far exceeding the total body pool of ascorbic acid. The course of healing subsequent to experimental trauma in one of these animals proved to be entirely normal and vitamin C concentration in its liver after 8 months of a scorbutogenic regimen was found to be more than twice that in guinea pigs with a daily intake of 10 mg ascorbic acid. It is evident that certain guinea pigs are capable to synthesize ascorbic acid that fully covers the needs of the organism. However, the freqency of occurence of such guinea pigs appears to be extremely small.