adjective

(chiefly of a drug) having the effect of preventing or curing scurvy.

In 1747 the British naval surgeon James Lind conducted experiments on antiscorbutic substances – that is, those able to prevent scurvy.

noun

An antiscorbutic food or drug.

Cook did, for example, but other captains didn’t and it was an imperfectly understood thing, that you had to have antiscorbutics in the diet otherwise you got scurvy.