August 26/Journal of Technology & Science -- According to a study from Karachi, Pakistan, "Ascorbic acid (AA) is one of the most important water soluble vitamin in the human diet, present naturally in a wide range of foods, especially fruits and vegetables. The objectives of this study was to develop a rapid, sensitive and specific method for the determination of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) from a variety of sources like fresh fruits or from human plasma using spectrophotometric technique or by RP-HPLC."
"Initially, estimation of vitamin C was carried out spectrophotometrically as UV spectroscopy is a trusted technique to monitor small quantities of drugs and vitamins. The assay was linear over the concentration range of 0.05-100 mu g/mL(-1). In the second procedure, we attempted to separate and quantitate ascorbic acid from fruit juices as well as from human plasma by RP-HPLC with UV detection. This has been possible because of the diversity of columns and conditions of analysis available. Chromatographic separation was successfully achieved on a pre-packed Kromasil 100, C-18 (5 mu m 25 x 0.46) column using acetonitrile: water (60:40; v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.75 mL(-mm) and effluent monitored at 265 nm. The assay was also linear over the concentration range of 0.05-100 mu g/mL(-1), with recovery ranging from 99.0-100.0% and intra and inter day CV <3% when applied to the analysis of ascorbic acid from fruit juice available in Pakistan at the time of study," wrote M.S. Arayne and colleagues, University of Karachi.