Ascorbic Acid

Absorption

70% to 90%

Description

Ascorbic acid, a water-soluble dietary supplement, is consumed by humans more than any other supplement. The name ascorbic means antiscurvy and denotes the ability of ascorbic to combat this disease. Vitamin C is the l-enantiomer of ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid deficiency in humans results in the body’s inability to synthesize collagen, which is the most abundant protein in vertebrates.

Description

L-Ascorbic acid, more familiarly known as vitamin C, is widely found in nature. It is particularly abundant in citrus and stone fruits, berries (especially acerola), peppers, and green vegetables.
Ironically ascorbic acid was first isolated from an animal source. In 1928, the legendary Hungarian biochemist Albert Szent-Gy?rgyi, then a student at the University of Cambridge (UK), extracted what he called “hexuronic acid” from the adrenal cortices of oxen. He and colleague Walter Norman Haworth later isolated the molecule from lemons and paprika. Szent-Gy?rgyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937; the same year, Haworth received the prize in chemistry.
In 1933, R. G. Ault at Birmingham Chemical Laboratories (UK), along with Haworth and others, was the first to report a synthesis of L- and D-ascorbic acid. (The D-enantiomer does not exist in nature and has no known uses.) That same year, Polish chemist Tadeusz Reichstein and colleagues at ETH Zürich developed a robust chemical/microbial process for producing ascorbic acid from D-glucose. Their multistep process was the predominant manufacturing route until the 1960s, when it was displaced by a two-step fermentation process in developed in China. Reichstein was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, but for his work on cortisone, not ascorbic acid.
Vitamin C, as ascorbic acid or its salts, is essential for human nutrition. It is a cofactor that permits several enzymes to function properly; it plays a role in the immune system; and it is an antioxidant. Vitamin C deficiency causes the disease scurvy, which, if not treated, results in decreased red blood cell production and excessive bleeding. In extreme cases, it is fatal.
Ascorbic acid, as vitamin C, was the topic of much controversy in the 1970s. Double Nobel prizewinner Linus Pauling advocated the consumption of large doses of the vitamin as a way to compensate for the body’s inability to produce enough of it for optimum health. Specifically, Pauling espoused taking 2.5 g or more vitamin C per day for general health and to prevent or treat the common cold. He and others also contended that doses as great as 10 g/day helped prevent or cure heart disease and cancers. The so-called vitamin C megadose theory has been largely discredited.?
Originally the Molecule of the Week for January 1, 2007

The Uses of Ascorbic Acid

Sodium, potassium, and calcium salts of ascorbic acids are called ascorbates and are used as food preservatives. To make ascorbic acid fat-soluble, it can be esterified. Esters of ascorbic acid and acids, such as palmitic acid to form ascorbyl palmitate and stearic acid to form ascorbic stearate, are used as antioxidants in food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Ascorbic acid is also essential in the metabolism of some amino acids. It helps protect cells from free radical damage, helps iron absorption, and is essential for many metabolic processes.

What are the applications of Application

L-Ascorbic acid, cell culture is a calcium channel protein inhibitor

Indications

Used to treat vitamin C deficiency, scurvy, delayed wound and bone healing, urine acidification, and in general as an antioxidant. It has also been suggested to be an effective antiviral agent.

What are the applications of Application

L-Ascorbic acid, free acid is also known as vitamin C

Background

A six carbon compound related to glucose. It is found naturally in citrus fruits and many vegetables. Ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient in human diets, and necessary to maintain connective tissue and bone. Its biologically active form, vitamin C, functions as a reducing agent and coenzyme in several metabolic pathways. Vitamin C is considered an antioxidant.

Pharmacokinetics

Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C) is a water-soluble vitamin indicated for the prevention and treatment of scurvy, as ascorbic acid deficiency results in scurvy. Collagenous structures are primarily affected, and lesions develop in bones and blood vessels. Administration of ascorbic acid completely reverses the symptoms of ascorbic acid deficiency.

Metabolism

Hepatic. Ascorbic acid is reversibly oxidised (by removal of the hydrogen from the enediol group of ascorbic acid) to dehydroascorbic acid. The two forms found in body fluids are physiologically active. Some ascorbic acid is metabolized to inactive compounds including ascorbic acid-2-sulfate and oxalic acid.