Determination of Ascorbic Acid in Vitamin C (Tablets) by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

The objective of the present study is to investigate suitable technique for the determination of ascorbic acid. A sensitive HPLC-UV method is developed for fast and simple quantification of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in different vitamin C supplements. The method use a Haisil C-18 column and for the stationary phase. HPLC grade water is brought to pH 2.2 with sulphuric acid: methanol (80:20) for the mobile phase. The flow rate is 1.0 mL/min and UV detection at 243 nm. The limit of detection is estimated at 0.42 ppm. The method showed precision values (relative standard deviation, RSD %) at 1.79 % for effervecense tablet and 2.19 % for conventional tablet. The results obtained are in good agreement with those found by the AOAC official titrimetry method, the accuracy (relative error, RE %) are 1.67 % and to 1.41 % for effervescence and conventional tablets, respectively.