MEASURING THE VITAMIN C CONTENT OF FOODS AND FRUIT JUICES

Class Practical
Measure the vitamin C content of a sample of fruit juice by measuring the volume of the
sample required to decolourise a solution of DCPIP. Calibrate the results by comparison
with a known concentration of vitamin C.
Apparatus and Chemicals
For each group of students:
Burette

For the class set up by technician/ teacher:

Vitamin C solution, 1% (Note 1)
DCPIP solution, 1% (Note 2)

Pipette, graduated
Pipette filler
Fruit juice samples
Ethical Issues
There are no ethical issues with this procedure. Consider what to do if your results give
very different measures than those quoted by manufacturers.

Procedure
SAFETY: Take care with fragile glassware such as burettes.
Preparation
a Make up a 1% solution of vitamin C with 1 g of vitamin C in 100 cm3; this is 10 mg cm3.
b Make up a 1% solution of DCPIP.
Investigation
c Pipette 2 cm3 of vitamin C solution into a test tube.
d Using a graduated pipette or a burette, add 1% DCPIP drop by drop to the vitamin C
solution. Shake the tube gently after adding each drop. Add DCPIP solution until the blue
colour of the final drop does not disappear.
e Record the exact amount of DCPIP solution that was added.
f Repeat the procedure and calculate an average result.
g Repeat with the fruit juices to be tested. If more than 5 cm3 of DCPIP are completely
decolourised, dilute the fruit juice and repeat the test. If the fruit juice has a strong colour
that will interfere with determining the end point, dilute the juice before testing.
h Calculate the amount of vitamin C in the standard solution in mg cm3. Calculate how
much vitamin C there is in each of the fruit juices in mg cm3.

Teaching Notes

In acidic conditions, DCPIP does not decolourise completely, but remains pink. With
strongly acidic juices such as lemon juice this could confuse determination of the endpoint.
If you are testing lots of different solutions, it is easier to put the DCPIP in a burette and
titrate it into measured samples of fruit juice, rather than cleaning a burette several times in
one lesson. If you have plenty of graduated pipettes, you could measure each juice into a
measured sample of DCPIP and observe the point at which the DCPIP loses its colour.
Hypotheses to test could include

fresh juices have more vitamin C than long-life

juice not from concentrate is best in terms of vitamin content

fruit squashes have less vitamin C than fruit juices

if heat destroys vitamin C, then heat-treated long-life juices will have lower
concentrations

if heat destroys vitamin C, then boiled fruit juice will have lower concentrations
than unboiled

manufacturers generally provide reliable information about their products

vitamin C degrades in vitamin tablets, and old tablets will have less than fresh
ones