People found the Great Barrier Reef by the orange

Holding the orange / lemon fruit in your hand, perhaps you did not expect it to have a great impact on the process of discovering the world of mankind.

But the fact that they created that effect: adventures of discovering new lands beyond the oceans only really developed after people knew that oranges could help prevent scurvy (vitamin-deficiency disease). C).

The oranges play an important role in the discovery of new lands across the ocean of mankind - (Photo: REUTERS).

When humans invented larger ships and could withstand wind and waves even offshore, they did not want to sail in nearshore areas.

But in exchange for the freedom to roam the sea, sailors were forced to live on the food reserves that were marinated and preserved. Usually within 6 weeks of leaving the port, many of the sailors began to show symptoms of scurvy.

Scurvy is a disease caused by a deficiency with symptoms such as bleeding gums, slow healing of wounds, wide bruises on the skin.

This disease used to happen to seafarers who have been away from the sea for months without eating fresh vegetables and now can also occur in people who have a diet that lacks this important vitamin.

For centuries, the diet of long-time seafarers mostly consisted of salt meat and biscuits, which lacked vitamin C inherent in fresh vegetables. The lack of substance in the diet has caused more sailors to die from scurvy than even those killed by fighting, shipwrecks or piracy.

In fact in the past, with many long voyages, the ships would usually depart with a crew of 50% more than necessary to "compensate" for the number of cases that would die because scurvy disease.

At the time, methods for preventing this disease were known, but almost everyone did not pay attention to them. For example, in 1601, Captain James Lancaster gave his sailors a certain amount of lemon juice every day, thus preventing scurvy for some people.

But when considering the cost of fresh fruit or preserved fruit in order to get a glass of orange or lemon juice each day for each sailor, it is thought that this is an impossible option.

Dr. James Lind - (Photo: WIKIPEDIA).

More than 100 years later, in 1747, a Scottish surgeon named James Lind (1716-1794) conducted the first controlled clinical trial of orange / lemon juice.

He chose 12 scurvy sick sailors and divided them into two groups. One group drank orange juice and lemon juice during meals, while the other group only drank seawater, vinegar, cider or diluted sulfuric acid.

That test resulted in James Lind developing the theory of scurvy prevention and treatment for citrus fruits such as oranges / lemons that have been forgotten for more than 40 years.

Thanks to Dr. James Lind's research, thanks to the orange / lemon fruits, humans have achieved the following miraculous discoveries as the accomplishment of Captain James Cook, the first explorer to cross the Arctic Circle and also the one who discovered.