Titration Of Vitamin C With Orange Juice
By Sam Cyrus

Titration of vitamin C is intended to determine which citrus fruit contains the most vitamin C. The citrus fruit can be made to be prepared material as : home-made fresh-squeezed, premium not-from-concentrate, or juice made from frozen concentrate. The titration of vitamin C is based on a color change.

Using various types of orange juice may be the easiest way for the titration of vitamin C. As a common technique in chemistry, titration is a way to measure the unknown amount of a chemical in a solution (the titran) by adding a measured amount of a chemical with a known concentration (the titrating solution). The titrating solution reacts with the titrant, and the endpoint of the reaction is monitored in some way. The concentration of the titrant can now be calculated from the amount of titrating solution added and the ratio of the two chemicals in the chemical equation for the reaction.

The titration of vitamin C by iodine is a specific example of the titration process. While ascorbic acid is the chemical name for vitamin C, the chemical reaction takes place when iodine and the ascorbic acid are combined in solution. In this chemical reaction, the ascorbic acid molecule loses electrons, which are transferred to the iodine molecule. The ascorbic acid is oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid, and the iodine is reduced to iodide ions. The molecule that loses electrons is oxidized, and the molecule that accepts the electrons is reduced.

The amount of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) can be determined by using the iodine-ascorbic acid reaction. Starting with a known concentration of iodine, this titration of vitamin C calculates how much the appeared ascorbic acid by carefully measure the amount of the iodine solution you add. The iodine-ascorbic acid reaction will be complete as you add an indicator to the solution. In this case, the indicator is soluble starch. When iodine reacts with starch, it turns the solution a blue-black color. If ascorbic acid is present in the solution, iodine will react with it, and not with the starch, so the solution will not change color.