Flow injection spectrophotometric or conductometric determination of ascorbic acid in a vitamin C tablet using permanganate or ammonia

Two simple flow injection (FI) procedures for the determination of ascorbic acid content in a vitamin C tablet are proposed: spectrophotometric involving injection into a stream of acidic potassium permanganate solution and monitoring its color change due to the redox reaction; Fl conductometry based on the neutralization of ascorbic acid injected into a flowing ammonia solution yielding a change in conductivity. The procedures have been applied to the analysis of locally commercial vitamin C tablet samples. A through-put of at least 90 injections h(-1) can be achieved. The relative standard deviation was found to be 2.5% (for a 50 mg vitamin C tablet; n = 7) for both. Results obtained by either procedure agree with a standard titrimetric method. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.