Iodometric determination of ascorbic acid in bulk and Vitamin-C tablets using Potassium Iodate

Ascorbic acid is one of the major water soluble vitamin and many health benefits have been attributed to ascorbic acid such as antioxidant, anti-atherogenic,immunomodulator anti-carcinogenic etc. It plays a vital role in the biosynthesis of collagen, carnitine and neurotransmitters. As humans can not produce ascorbic acid due to the lack of an enzyme gulonolactone oxidase, it has to be supplemented mainly through fruits, vegetables and tablets. In this present work, we have reported a simple, cost effective, reliable titrimetric method for the estimation of ascorbic acid present in commercially available Vit-C tablets and also the determination of molecular weight of ascorbic acid. The method involves the oxidative dehydrogenation of ascorbic acid by potassium iodate followed by the determination of unreacted potassium iodate by iodometry. Access