Vitamin C is a water-soluble compound that is essential for life. It is involved in many
processes in the human body, including: the production of collagen in the connective tissue;
the synthesis of dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline in the nervous system; and the
synthesis of carnitine, which is important in the transfer of energy to the cell mitochondria.
A deficiency in vitamin C causes scurvy, a disease that affected sailors in the 16th - 18th
Centuries. It was discovered that fresh fruit, e.g. limes and oranges, or sauerkraut
(preserved cabbage) provided the sailors with protection from scurvy.
In Australia and New Zealand, the recommended daily intake (RDI) of Vitamin C is 60 mg.
The Nobel-prize winning scientist, Linus Pauling (1901 – 1994), believed in regular mega
doses of vitamin C, but this is still regarded as unorthodox in conventional medicine.
Vitamin C is often used as an antimicrobial and antioxidant in foodstuffs. It was first
isolated in 1928 and in 1932 it was proved to be the agent which prevented scurvy (hence
its scientific name of “ascorbic acid”, which literally translates as “anti-scurvy acid”). Its
structure was determined in 1933 and confirmed by total synthesis soon after.
Enantiomers are isomers that are mirror images of each other, a concept dealt with in detail
in E15. Vitamin C is the L-enantiomer of ascorbic acid, as shown in Figure 1. (See Skill
13 if you can’t understand the stick structures used.) Ascorbic acid is a stable solid that
does not react with air, however, it is rapidly oxidised on exposure to air and light when in
aqueous solution. The product of this oxidation is dehydroascorbic acid,