Chemistry of ascorbic acid The main use of -ascorbic acid and its salts is as food additives, mostly to combat oxidation. It is approved for this purpose in the EU with E number E300, USA, Australia, and New Zealand) Another major use of -ascorbic acid is as dietary supplement. Natural biosynthesis of vitamin C occurs in many plants, and animals, by a variety of processes. Eighty percent of the world's supply of ascorbic acid is produced in China. Ascorbic acid is prepared in industry from glucose in a method based on the historical Reichstein process. In the first of a five-step process, glucose is
Chemistry of ascorbic acid acid solution. Electrolyzing the solution of potassium iodide produces iodine, which reacts with ascorbic acid. The end of process is determined by potentiometric titration in a manner similar to Karl Fischer titration. The amount of ascorbic acid can be calculated by Faraday's law. Another alternative uses "N"-bromosuccinimide (NBS) as the oxidizing agent, in the presence of potassium iodide and starch. The NBS first oxidizes the ascorbic acid; when the latter is exhausted, the NBS liberates the iodine from the potassium iodide, which then forms the blue-black complex with starch. Chemistry of ascorbic acid Ascorbic acid is an organic compound with