Comparative Evaluation of the Ascorbic Acid Content of Mineral Ascorbate and Ascorbic Acid Tablets Marketed in Zaria

Comparative Evaluation of the Ascorbic Acid Content of Mineral Ascorbate and Ascorbic Acid Tablets Marketed in Zaria.

ABSTRACT

The ascorbic acid content of mineral ascorbate and six brands of ascorbic acid tablets marketed in Zaria with brand names Calcium ascorbate, Ascorbion, Emvit C, Ascorvite, Topcee, Bioracee and Sofa C respectively were comparatively evaluated using four methods.

These include titrimetric method of British pharmacopoiea 2009, sodium thiosulphate titrimetric method, Ultra violet spectrophotometric method employing stabilizers and a newly developed 2,4- dinitrophenyl hydrazine method.

The developed method was validated and the analyte showed  an absorption maxima at 527nm and a percentage recovery of 97.4%.

Beer‘s law was obeyed in the concentration range of 5ug to 25ug/ml, giving a regression equation of y= 0.041x + 0.032  and a correlation coefficient of 0.9910.

The percentage content of ascorbic acid in Calcium ascorbate, Ascorbion, EmvitC, Ascorvite, Topcee, Bioracee, and SofaC in the Ultra violet spectroscopy method using stabilizers were 108.2%, 29.7%, 26.3%, 33%, 66.7%, 46.7%, 27.948% respectively.

The values obtained from the sodium thiosulphate titrimetric method were 95.6%,  98.30%,  101.90%,  94.86%,  94.18%,  98.89%  and  100.02%  respectively.

INTRODUCTION

1.1 ASCORBIC ACID 

Vitamin C otherwise known as ascorbic acid is a water soluble vitamin that is naturally present in some foods, added to others and taken as a dietary supplement.

Though it is derived from glucose, humans and some other primates like guinea pigs, teleost, fishes, bats and birds cannot synthesize it invivo due to the genetic mutation that prevents them from synthesizing L-gluconolactone oxidase enzyme, which converts glucose to ascorbic acid.

Vitamin C can be synthesized by some other animals like dogs, goats, sheep, etc. (Storn, 1972).

Vitamin C is an important component of a healthy diet. Its history revolves around that of the human scurvy disease; a severe form of vitamin C deficiency, probably the first human sickness to be recognized as a deficiency disease.

Its symptoms includes exhaustion, massive haemorrhaging of flesh and gums, general weakness and diarrhoea.

Presently, it is rare to be seriously deficient of vitamin C, although evidence suggests that many people may have low levels of Vitamin C. Smoking cigarettes lowers the amount of vitamin C in the body.

REFERENCES

Ascorbic acid. Retrieved August, 2013 fromhttp:// Pubchem.ncbi.nlm.gov/toc/summary-332/sid Ball, G. F. M. (2006). Vitamin in foods: Analysis Bioavailability and Stability. United States of America,CRC Press Taylor and Francis Group. PP 1809.

Blauch D.N (2009). Spectrophotometry;Basic principles.n Retrieved July 31,2013, from http://www.chm.davidson.edu/vce/spectrophotometry/Spectrophotometry.html.

Burdurlu, H. S., Koca, N. And Karadeniz, F. (2005). Degradation of Vitamin C in Citrus Juice Concentrates During Storage, Journal of Food Engineering. 74, pp. 211-216.

Castro, R.N Azeredo, L.C, Azeredo, M.A.A De Sampaio, C.S.T.(2001). Hplc assay for the determination of ascorbic acid in honey samples. Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies. 24(7). 1015-1020

Cathcart R.F. (1981). Vitamin C titration to bowel tolerance Anascorbema and acute induced scurvy. Medical hypotheses, 7:1359-1376.

Chen, X. And Sato, M. (1995). High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Ascorbic Acid in Soft Drinks and Apple Juice using Tris(2,2′-bipyridine)ruthenium(II)

Comments are closed.

Hey Hi

Don't miss this opportunity

Enter Your Details