The antiscorbutic properties of certain foods were demonstrated in the 18th century

by James Lind. In 1907, Axel Holst and Theodor Fr�lich discovered that the
antiscorbutic factor was a water-soluble chemical substance, distinct from the one
that prevented beriberi. Between 1928 and 1932, Albert Szent-Gy�rgyi isolated a
candidate for this substance, which he called it "hexuronic acid", first from
plants and later from animal adrenal glands. In 1932 Charles Glen King confirmed
that it was indeed the antiscorbutic factor.

In 1933, sugar chemist Walter Norman Haworth, working with samples of "hexuronic
acid" that Szent-Gy�rgyi had isolated from paprika and sent him in the previous
year, deduced the correct structure and optical-isomeric nature of the compound,
and in 1934 reported its first synthesis.[2][3] In reference to the compound's
antiscorbutic properties, Haworth and Szent-Gy�rgyi proposed to rename it "a-
scorbic acid" for the compound, and later specifically l-ascorbic acid.[4] Because
of their work, in 1937 two Nobel Prizes: in Chemistry and in Physiology or Medicine
were awarded to Haworth and Szent-Gy�rgyi, respectively.

Independently, ascorbic acid was synthetized in 1933 by Tadeusz Reichstein (the

Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 1950).[5]