Definition and Areas of Use :
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin with many functions. Most animals and plants can produce their own vitamin C from glucose. Since humans, some fruit bats, guinea pigs and human-like primates cannot produce vitamin C, they must obtain it from food.
Ascorbic acid is a monosaccharide derivative and is similar in structure to glucose and other six-carbon monosaccharides. It is colorless, white, rectangular crystals. It has a very slight specific odor. It has a sour taste and an acid reaction. It is optically active. It rotates polarized light to the right. It is very difficult to dissolve in acetone. It is insoluble in ether, petroleum ether, benzene, chloroform and oils. Vitamin C is chemically the enantiomer of ascorbic acid that rotates light to the left. Commercial vitamin C generally consists of ascorbic acid crystals or calcium or sodium salts of ascorbic acid. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is found in very high concentrations (millimolar and above) in the aqueous parts of many animal tissues such as the spinal cord, lungs and eyes.