Because they contain vitamin C. Scurvy pathogenesis >Vitamins are essential to the production and use of enzymes that are involved in ongoing processes throughout the human body.[6] Ascorbic acid is needed for a variety of biosynthetic pathways, by accelerating hydroxylation and amidation reactions. In the synthesis of collagen, ascorbic acid is required as a cofactor for prolyl hydroxylase and lysyl hydroxylase. These two enzymes are responsible for the hydroxylation of the proline and lysine amino acids in collagen. Hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine are important for stabilizing collagen by cross-linking the propeptides in collagen. >Collagen is a primary structural protein in the human body, necessary for healthy blood vessels, muscle, skin, bone, cartilage, and other connective tissues. Defective connective tissue leads to fragile capillaries, resulting in abnormal bleeding, bruising, and internal hemorrhaging. Collagen is an important part of bone, so bone formation is also affected. Teeth loosen, bones break more easily, and once-healed breaks may recur.[6] Defective collagen fibrillogenesis impairs wound healing. Untreated scurvy is invariably fatal.[16] Scurvy is vitamin C deficiency. It's more common to see broad vitamin deficiency and the associated symptoms. Sailors weren't starving, but they consumed the same unbalanced diet for months at a time. The history of scurvy goes back thousands of years. Different treatments were found across Europe and Asia long before vitamins were conceived of.