Abstract

ANALYSIS OF VITAMIN C CONTENT IN LEMON

Thinesh Jeyathas and Chanjugaa Uthayakumar*

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Abstract

Ascorbic acid is one of the essential vitamins necessary for the human body. The general recommended amount of vitamin C intake is around 60 - 95 milligrams per day. Although excess may result in a disease condition called, hemochromatosis. It is vital to consume vitamin C in an appropriate amount. Therefore, this research was carried out in order to determine the amount and concentration of ascorbic acid in lemon juice sample which is readily available without any economic cost and highly rich in ascorbic acid and belongs to hesperidia family. Through titration it is convenient to determine the ascorbic acid concentration along stages after it is ripped and collected, and the lemon juice is used for the process of titration. Titration is a volumetric analysis of concentration of a known analyte. Likewise, standard vitamin C tablet with a known mass was taken and its volume was found. At meantime the lemon juice volume also found through titration via the weight / volume ratio of the lemon juice was calculated and the concentration was also calculated. Thus it was decided that the consumption of the fruit in order to obtain vitamin C should be done in sufficient amount according to the type of fruit. The results were obtained as follow: beginning of ripening lemon fruit consisted the higher amount of ascorbic acid (1.8 mL) and the less volume (0.67 mL) was detected in the sample which was after 3 weeks since plucking. Further, fully green lemon consisted 1.4 mL, after 1 week since plucking fruit consisted of 0.93 mL, and lemon kept in refrigerator for 1 week was detected with 1.3 mL of ascorbic acid. Therefore, changes of ascorbic acid concentration along with the time period was detected through this project. To know the exact correlation, the project suggests to do the study with more number of samples to produce a clear idea about this correlation.

Keywords: Ascorbic acid, Lemon, Anti-oxidant, Vitamin C.