Does anyone know a way to extract vitamin C from lemon or orange or ?
Keeping in mind that i will use it in drinks after i extract it ....kyanite - 9-5-2005 at 12:31
Why go through all that hassle, when you could go to a grocery store/health food store and buy vitamin C there?
But if you insist on extracting it, I'd try turning it into a salt and boil the water away, or something along that line.chemoleo - 9-5-2005 at 13:13
You can't boil it, heat degrades Vit C.
It's not an easy question, because Vit. C is both unstable and easily oxidised.
Did you check it's various salts and their solubilities? There are bound to be some salts that are insoluble. I just checked, Na, K, and Ca salts
are soluble.
Anyway, that way you may be able to precipitate it, which would have to be purified further from other acids.denatured - 12-5-2005 at 12:25
I know people that i can make all that ... but there is much fun and knowledge in extracting and preparing it by myself than go and buy it ready to be
used or eat fruit (i am eating fruit from a long time ago) ... i hope you
understood me ..
Anyway , i asked a professor about that issue and he told me to go search in department's library ... so i will go soon there and tell you...Pyridinium - 13-6-2005 at 19:54
How did you do with your vitamin C experiment?
I was going to suggest vacuum evaporation at room temperature or somewhat colder; drawing out the air would keep O2 from destroying the ascorbic
acid.
Another way would be to keep the preparation under Ar or N2 and absorb the moisture with CaCl2 as it evaporates. I've actually been thinking of
trying this myself, but I've a long list of projects in the queue before it.
A big problem you could face is ascorbic acid oxidase. Many plants have it. I don't know about citrus fruits offhand. You'd need
something to denature the enzyme that is non poisonous and also won't ruin the ascorbic acid.
If you recrystallize the ascorbic acid, you might try neutral grain spirits (ethanol), not denatured. You said you're going to use it in drinks,
after all.
Old fruit ?
Lambda - 13-6-2005 at 22:48
In old fruit the ascorbic acid content goes drastically down. There is a shitload of ascorbic acid in kiwi's, and a much smaller quantity in a
lemon. It's a fabel that a lemon has such a high content of ascorbic acid. People seem to justify this by it's soure tast, wrong !,
that's the citric acid that mind-bumbs them. You are going to have to reduce all your oxidized ascorbic acid back again. I do understand that
economics is not your main motivator, but seeing that you are interested in the procedure, why not take "number one" in ascorbic acid
content, the kiwi (wel actually CAMU CAMU). Nice and fresh, you may then nible on one as your experiment goes, yumyum, nice !. Bumb that rotten stuff,
you may be disapointed with your find.
It is estimated that 100 mg ascorbic acid is contained in one orange, a few strawberries, one kiwi fruit, 1–2 slices of pineapple, several florets
of raw cauliflower or a handful of uncooked spinach leaves. Apples, bananas, pears and plums contain very little ascorbic acid. Results indicate also
that the antioxidant capacity of vegetables decreases rapidly and significantly after fragmentation.
Artificial chemical synthesis
Vitamin C is produced from glucose by two main routes. The Reichstein process developed in the 1930s uses a single pre-fermentation followed by a
purely chemical route. The more modern Two-Step fermentation process was originally developed in China in the 1960s, uses additional fermentation to
replace part of the later chemical stages. Both processes yield approximately 60% vitamin C from the glucose feed.
In 1934, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche was the first to mass produce synthetic vitamin C, under the brand name of Redoxon. Main
producers today are BASF/ Takeda, Roche, Merck and the China Pharmaceutical Group Ltd of the People's Republic of China.
Ascorbic acid content per 100 grams of fresh fruit in milligrams (mg):
Kiwifruit,green 98
Kiwifruit,yellow 120 to 180
Lemon juice 46
Lime juice 29
Orange 53
Lychee 72
Mango 28
Avocado 8 (you better leave this one on the tree)
Camu Camu 2700 (astounding !)
Peach 7 (my girlfriend)
Quote:
I call my girlfriend "peach", how is that for fruit ?
[Edited on 14-6-2005 by Lambda]sparkgap - 13-6-2005 at 22:58
So this is a cue for the Zealanders to be sending him the fruit?
Or better yet, for them to try it on their lonesome?
I agree with Lambda, the sourness in citrus is more of citric than ascorbic. On the subject of the oxidase, I recall that it takes air to activate the
enzyme, so if he has access to inert atmospheres, that may just be his ticket.
sparky (~_~)
P.S. How much is shipping from NZ to Egypt? Pyridinium - 14-6-2005 at 08:25
Pretty sure you're right, sparkgap. Oxygen is required for that one. You might get some destruction of ascorbic acid just from the dissolved
oxygen in solution, considering we're talking about milligram quantities to begin with, but it would still be minor.
Just thought about it some more... an influx of cold ethanol should make the proteins precipitate out from the rest (ethanol precipitation). The
ethanol would then take up the ascorbic acid, fructose, etc.
The fruits-- you forgot acerola fruit (West Indian cherry)... 1600+ mg C per 100 g... second only to Camu Camu in vitamin C content.
Edit: the forum code interpreted my parenthesis as a smiley... fixed.
[Edited on 15-6-2005 by Pyridinium]
Edit: Unionised, I just had a web reference for vit. C in rose hips, complete with the amount in mg per 100 g... I lost the link and can't
remember what search terms I used!
[Edited on 15-6-2005 by Pyridinium]unionised - 14-6-2005 at 13:06
I seem to remember that rose hips are a good source of vitamin C, but I can't find any good data on the 'net. The best I can find is
"50 times higher than lemon juice", and that's probably marketing hype.
Probably not as high as some, but I don't grow west indian cheries in my garden.
Vitamine C content in fruits
Lambda - 14-6-2005 at 14:15
You are right Unionised, Rosehips have about 1150-2500 mg of ascorbic acid per 100 grams of fruit.
) ... i hope you
understood me ..