Research At Great Lakes Meeting Shows More Vitamin C In Organic Oranges

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Research At Great Lakes Meeting Shows More Vitamin C In Organic Oranges JoAnn

Guest Jun 28, 2005 14:45 PDT

American Chemical Society

2002-06-03

http://www.rawfoodinfo.com/home/home_a.html

 

Research At Great Lakes Meeting Shows More Vitamin C In Organic Oranges

Than Conventional Oranges

 

 

MINNEAPOLIS, June 2 — Organically-grown oranges contain up to 30% more

vitamin C than those grown conventionally, it was reported today at a

Great Lakes Regional meeting of the American Chemical Society, the

world's largest scientific society. The Great Lakes meeting is being

held at the Radisson Hotel Metrodome June 2-4 and more than 400

scientists and students are expected to attend. This research paper is

being presented in Memorial Hall of the McNamara Alumni Center at the

University of Minnesota. Theo Clark, a visiting chemistry professor at

Truman State University (Kirksville, Mo), reported the finding based on

work done by him and a group of undergraduate students. He said he

decided to conduct the analysis because of a lack of analytical

information about the nutritional content of organically-grown produce.

 

" Quite often, organic goods come from smaller farms that market their

goods with provocative labels such as ‘healthy,' ‘delicious,' or

‘natural', " he said. " These statements are generally made without

reference to any comparable standards. " Clark added that he chose

oranges to begin the assessment because they are high-profile fruits.

" The orange is the traditional source of vitamin C, and it is highly

commercialized, but no one to our knowledge has thought to compare the

organic and conventionally-grown oranges. "

 

Conventional oranges are larger than organically-grown oranges, and they

have a deeper orange color. Because of their size, " we were expecting

twice as much vitamin C in the conventional oranges, " said Clark. But to

his surprise, chemical isolation combined with nuclear magnetic

resonance (NMR) spectroscopy revealed that the organically-grown oranges

contained 30% more vitamin C than the conventionally-grown fruits — even

though they were only about half the size.

 

Clark said the reason for the added nutritional punch isn't clear, but

" we speculate that with conventional oranges, (farmers) use nitrogen

fertilizers that cause an uptake of more water, so it sort of dilutes

the orange. You get a great big orange but it is full of water and

doesn't have as much nutritional value, " said Clark. " However, we can

only speculate. Other factors such as maturity, climate, processing

factors, packaging, and storage conditions require consideration. "

 

In addition to the chemical analysis, Clark and his team conducted a

survey of 27 households (approximately 71 individuals) in the rural town

of Miller, Mo., to gauge their expectations of organic oranges. Eighty

five percent of respondents believed that organic oranges would have a

higher nutritional content than their conventionally-grown counterparts,

and Clark's research shows that " they were right on. " However, 65%

believed that there was little or no price difference between the two

types of oranges. In fact, Clark's team found that organic oranges cost

an average of twice as much.

 

Clark says these issues are important because consumers have a right to

know the real nutritional content of organic produce, and hard numbers

such as the vitamin C content can validate the claims of the burgeoning

organic industry. On the other hand, farmers considering a change from

conventional to organic farming methods need to know what consumers

expect, and what they are willing to pay for it.

 

 

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Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued for

journalists and other members of the public.

If you wish to quote any part of this story, please credit American

Chemical Society as the original source.

You may also wish to include the following link in any citation:

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/06/020603071017.htm

 

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