Vitamin C Determination by Iodine Titration

One way to determine the amount of vitamin C in food is to use a redox titration. In this titrartion
the titrant will be I2 solution. Iodine is relatively insoluble, but this can be improved by
complexing the iodine with iodide-ion (I2 +KI solution)

As long as vitamin C is present in the solution, the iodine is converted to the iodide ion very
quickly. Howevever, when the all the vitamin C is oxidized, iodine will be present, which react
with starch to form a blue-black complex. The blue-black color is the endpoint of the titration.

Description of the procedure:

Weigh about 10 grams of fruit, slice it , and then triturated in a mortar. Measure 10 cm3 of
sulfuric acid with a cylinder and add it to the fruit suspension. Then wash all the suspension into
an Erlenmeyer flask then add 1 cm3 starch solution. Titrate it with 0.0025 M iodine solution.
From the consumed amount of iodine the vitamin C content of the fruit can be determined.

The process of calculation:

o Calculate how much iodine consumed (in moles) in the solution!
o Write the reaction equation and than conclude how much vitamin C (in moles) was in the
Erlenmeyer flask!
o Calculate the amount of vitamin C in grams!
o Calculate how many grams of vitamin C are in 100 gram fruit!