Vitamin C of mannose or galactose to ascorbic acid. In animals, the starting material is glucose. In some species that synthesize ascorbate in the liver (including mammals and perching birds), the glucose is extracted from glycogen; ascorbate synthesis is a glycogenolysis-dependent process. In animals that cannot synthesize vitamin C, the enzyme -gulonolactone oxidase (GULO), that catalyses the last step in the biosynthesis, is highly mutated and non-functional. The biosynthesis of ascorbic acid in vertebrates starts with the formation of UDP-glucuronic acid. UDP-glucuronic acid is formed when UDP-glucose undergoes two oxidations catalyzed by the enzyme UDP-glucose 6-dehydrogenase. UDP-glucose 6-dehydrogenase uses the co-factor NAD
Chemistry of ascorbic acid titration with an oxidizing agent, and several procedures have been developed. The popular iodometry approach uses iodine in the presence of a starch indicator. Iodine is reduced by ascorbic acid, and, when all the ascorbic acid has reacted, the iodine is then in excess, forming a blue-black complex with the starch indicator. This indicates the end-point of the titration. As an alternative, ascorbic acid can be treated with iodine in excess, followed by back titration with sodium thiosulfate using starch as an indicator. This iodometric method has been revised to exploit reaction of ascorbic acid with iodate and iodide in