Ingredients of Vitamin C Tablets & Their Reaction to Acids

Vitamin C, also know as ascorbic acid, is an essential, water soluble vitamin that serves an important function in immune health. People do not produce their own ascorbic acid, so it is best absorbed into the body through various fruit and vegetable sources. You may also purchase vitamin C in tablet form as individual supplements or as part of a mulivitamin complex.

• Pineapple juice is high in vitamin C

Ingredients in Vitamin C Tablets

• Most supplement forms of vitamin C contain the L-form of ascorbic acid, which is claimed to be better utilized by the body. Tablets may also contain binders, such as corn starch and cellulose.

Uses for Vitamin C

• The most common use for vitamin C is for the treatment and prevention of a vitamin deficiency called scurvy. Vitamin C may also be used to boost immunity and aid the treatment of colds, although these uses are not substantiated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Features

• Most foods contain the L-form of ascorbic acid. When foods are mashed or juiced, the L-form converts to the D-form of ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is a weak acid. That is, it is not easily dissociated in water. Corn starch is a polymer found in corn kernels, and consists of hundreds of glucose sugar molecules. Cellulose is also a plant material, but consists of thousands of glucose molecules. Cellulose is found in natural sources like algae, green plants, and bacteria.

Effects of Acids

• In an early 1951 study, F. Alm's research group at the Swedish Institute for Food Preservation Research found that a 5 percent solution of acetic acid could oxidize ascorbic acid to dehydroascorbic acid in various fruits and vegetables within a two hour time frame. Acids weaker than acetic acid, such as lactic acid, took longer for the oxidation process to occur. Applying water to fruits and vegetables did not oxidize ascorbic acid. This study concluded that acids with a lower pH (a higher acidity) than ascorbic acid could not be used to preserve fruits and vegetables containing vitamin C.

  Vitamin C tablets may also contain fillers such as corn starch and cellulose, which are both types of polymerized sugars. Both corn starch and cellulose can be found in various plants and foods. In the presence of acids, such as hydrocholoric acid, polymerized sugars break down into smaller molecules. Thus, hydrochloric acid found in the stomach helps degrade polymers, easing digestion.

Benefits

• The weak acidic quality of ascorbic acid makes it useful for preserving foods, and as a reducing agent in solutions used to develop film.