Vitamin c supplementation in Immunity Building

India is passing through this havoc period of corona-2.0 and thousands of people died and the event continues. In this situation, all people are on the same platform as the money is not creating any difference in availing the sophisticated medical facility for corona patients. It is just because India is lagging in required medical infrastructure particularly ventilators, oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders, and other necessary equipment and instruments needed in intensive care units. People are looking towards Ayurveda and Unani medicines to recover the corona symptoms especially the lung infection. As most of the deaths took place due to the inability to breathing caused by corona infection. So, the most necessary and better solution in this situation is to enhance the innate immunity of the body to provide a good defense against viral and other infections.

Vitamin C which is chemically ascorbic acid has been proved to encourage the production of white blood cells such as lymphocytes, phagocytes. It was also found that vitamin C enhances the differentiation and proliferation of B-cells and T cells. People with low vitamin C show impaired immunity and are at high risk of infection. It has been found in many experimental studies that vitamin C supplementation appears to prevent and treat respiratory and systemic infections.

On the basis of experimental studies, vitamin C play crucial role in body immunity as given:

1.     Vitamin C acts as antioxidants or electron donor

2.     It enhances motility and chemotaxis

3.     It enhances phagocytosis and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS)

4.     It enhances microbial killing

5.     It facilitates apoptosis & clearance and decreases the necrosis

6.     It enhances the antibody level and differentiation & proliferation of B cells and T-lymphocytes

7.     It modulates the cytokine production and decreases the histamine level

8.     It enhances the collagen synthesis and stabilization

9.     It shortens the time of wound healing in patients

10.  It protects against damage caused by reactive oxygen species

Vitamin C rich foods

S.No.	Food category	Vitamin C content	Recommended Dietary Allowance
1	Amla	300 mg/100 g	65-90 mg per day for adults
2	Guava	228.3 mg/100g
3	Green chili	143.7 mg/100 g
4	Kiwi fruit	92.7 mg/100g
5	Papaya	62 mg/100g
6	Oranges	53.2 mg/100g
7	Lemon	53 mg/100g
8	Cantaloupe	36.7 mg/100g
9	Mango	36.4 mg/100g
10	Grapefruit	31.2 mg/100g

 

From the above table, it is very much clear that Kiwi has far less vitamin C content as compared to Amla, Guava and green chili. Amla, guava, and green chili are cheaper than kiwi fruit and easily available in India. These three food items are in reach of the poorest of the poor. Then why should we unnecessarily move towards kiwi fruit which is costlier (generally 40-45 INR per piece).

Actually, kiwi fruit is imported in India from New Zealand, Iran, and Chile, etc. So, to increase the demand in The Indian market, they advertise kiwi as a rich source of vitamin C. But in India, people do not cross-check the facts and they buy it to get the vitamin C.

Conclusively, Amla, Guava, and green chili are the better, cheaper, and easily accessible food source that one can buy it from the local village market to improve their vitamin C level. Finally, a diet rich in vitamin C helps the person to fight against a variety of infections like the common cold, flu, and Covid-19.