Comparative Investigation of Food Supplements Containing Ascorbic Acid

A simple, specific, precise and accurate reversed phase liquid chromatographic (RP-LC) method has been developed for the determination of ascorbic acid in different food additives. The chromatographic separation was achieved on a LiChrosorb C18, 250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 μm column at a detector wavelength of 230 nm and a flow rate of 1.5 ml/min. The mobile phase was composed of acetonitrile and water (60:40 v/v). The retention time of analyte was 3.49 min. The method was validated for the parameters like specificity, linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of quantitation and limit of detection. The method was found to be specific as no other peaks of impurities and excipients were observed. The square of correlation coefficient (R2) was 0.9997 while relative standard deviations were found to be <2.0%. The proposed RP-LC method can be applied for the routine analysis of commercially available food additives of ascorbic acid.