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Vitamin C: Ascorbic Acid
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Vitamin C... referred to as ascorbic acid or ascorbate, belongs to the water-soluble class of vitamins. Humans are one of the few species who lack the enzyme to convert glucose to vitamin C (13). Ascorbic acid (AA) is an odorless, white solid having the chemical formula C6H8O6. The vitamin is easily oxidized to form dehydroascorbic acid (DHAA), and thus oxidation is readily reversible. Vitamin C is a generic name for all compounds that exhibit the same biologic activity as AA. Consequently, the term includes both AA and DHAA.
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Most species of animals synthesise their own vitamin C. It is therefore not a vitamin for them. Synthesis in achieved through a sequence of enzyme driven steps, which convert glucose to ascorbic acid. It is carried out either in the kidneys, in reptiles and birds, or the liver, in mammals and perching birds. The loss of an enzyme concerned with ascorbic acid synthesis has occurred quite frequently in evolution and has affected most fish, many birds; some bats, guinea pigs and most but not all primates, including Man. The mutations have not been lethal because ascorbic acid is so prevalent in the surrounding food sources.
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Vitamin C is a weak sugar acid, and is a carbon based compound of six carbon atoms structurally related to glucose. Vitamin C is the L-enantiomer of ascorbic acid. The opposite D-enantiomer shows no biological activity. Both are mirror image forms of the same molecular structure. L-ascorbic acid exists as two inter-convertible compounds: L-ascorbic acid, which is a strong reducing agent, and its oxidised derivative, L-dehydroascorbic acid.[6]
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Asorbic Acid is the standard form of vitamin C. Calcium ascorbate is one of the salt forms of the nutrient (as opposed to the acid form). It is usually synthetic, as are other forms, such as sodium ascorbate, magnesium ascorbate, etc. It tends to be bitter, while ascorbic acid is sour.
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Vitamin C is the L-enantiomer of ascorbic acid. Commercial vitamin C is often a mix of ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate and/or other ascorbates. See the ascorbic acid article for a description of the molecule's chemical properties.
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From 1928 to 1933, the Hungarian research team of Joseph L Svirbely and Albert Szent-Györgyi and, independently, the American Charles Glen King, first isolated the antisorbutic factor, calling it "ascorbic acid" for its vitamin activity. Ascorbic acid turned out not to be an amine, or even to contain any nitrogen. For their accomplishment, Szent-Györgyi was awarded the 1937 Nobel Prize in Medicine.[35]
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Ascorbic Acid