Related Studies and Developments in Chromatographic Determination of Vitamin C

With the increasing variation of marketed food products and multivitamins containing vitamin C (VC) as an important nutrient, the nutritional value of vitamin C has been one of the major concerns. Vitamin C is an important antioxidant and one of the most investigated water-soluble vitamins, found in fruits, vegetables, and beverages. Its use is limited because of its unstable chemical properties (oxidation and loss) during processing and storage, which makes it an important quality indicator in different food matrices and drugs. The biggest challenge in the utilization of vitamin C is to maintain its stability and improve its quality and quantity in the targeted samples. Hence, the availability of accurate and precise methods of analysis becomes a key assurance of the scientific community. The complexity of sample matrices and the instability of VC pose a great challenge in the accurate quantification of VC. Therefore, it requires consumer awareness, including concerned divisions such as food processors, authorities, quality control agencies, drug and food chemists, and the general public. This review presents high-performance liquid chromatographic methods from published papers focused on the analysis of VC in fruits, vegetables, beverages, and pharmaceutical formulations. Also, a brief introduction about VC and its derivatives, stability, chemical characteristics, sample preparation, and extraction in different food matrices and multivitamins is discussed, since these efforts can contribute to the accurate analysis of VC.