VITAMIN C LAB REFLECTION

Vitamin C is a vitamin. Some animals can make their own vitamin C, but people must
get this vitamin from food and other sources. Good sources of vitamin C are fresh fruits and
vegetables especially citrus fruits. The fruit that we choose was persimmon to compared the
vitamin c concentration. This method determines the vitamin C concentration in a solution by
a redox titration using iodine. Vitamin C, more properly called ascorbic acid, is an essential
antioxidant needed by the human body. As the iodine is added during the titration, the
ascorbic acid is oxidised to dehydroascorbic acid, while the iodine is reduced to iodide ions.
Once all the ascorbic acid has been oxidised, the excess iodine is free to react with the starch
indicator, forming the blue-black starch-iodine complex. This is the endpoint of the titration.
The method is suitable for use with vitamin C tablets, fresh or packaged fruit juices and solid
fruits and vegetables.
The first step in our assay was to pretreat the fruits according to our preferences. We
choose to divide the fruit into three section to have three different kind of pretreatment. The
first treatment was to freeze the fruit for approximately 15 minutes. Next, for the other
treatment we boiled the persimmon in a water bath at the temperature of 40 . The third
treatment was to let the fruit sit at room temperature. The next step was to blend all the fruits
after each pretreatment after cutting the fruits into smaller pieces for it to blend easier. Each
of the sample was added with 100ml of distilled water for it to blend easier and produced
more liquid for us to test the vitamin C concentration.
After that we strain each of the mixture with to discard any granules so that we can
obtain a fine liquid. After that each mixture was placed in a 250ml for the titration process.
Before that each mixture was added with 2 drops of 0.1M HCL. Then we added 5ml of starch
into the beaker. The biuret was also filled with iodine solution and the initial reading was
recorded. The iodine solution was added drop by drop into the beaker of mixture as part of
the titration process. Added the iodine solution into the mixture while swirling the beaker
until it turns into a blue-black solution. After the mixture turns into a blue black solution, the
mixture was let sit for 15 seconds before recording the final biuret reading. Below is our
result:

RESULT:
Reading of iodine
in biuret (ml)

Persimmon stored
in freezer

Persimmon boiled

Persimmon at
room temperature

Initial

50ml

50ml

50ml

Final

41ml

47ml

44ml

Final-initial

9ml

3ml

6ml

Based on the result, we found out that the persimmon that was let in the freezer have
the highest reading of iodine solution in biuret. This is because fresh fruits and vegetables,
when harvested, continue to undergo chemical changes which can cause spoilage and
deterioration of the product. This is why these products should be frozen as soon after harvest
as possible and at their peak degree of ripeness. Fresh produce contains chemical compounds
called enzymes which cause the loss of color, loss of nutrients, flavor changes, and color
changes in frozen fruits and vegetables. These enzymes must be inactivated to prevent such
reactions from taking placed. Instead, enzymes in frozen fruit are controlled by using
chemical compounds which interfere with deteriorative chemical reactions. The most
common control chemical is ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Ascorbic acid may be used in its pure
form or in commercial mixtures with sugars. (vitamin C). Freezing, when properly done, is
the method of food preservation which may potentially preserve the greatest quantity of
nutrients.