Ascorbic acid
Ascorbic acid is a sugar acid. It is white to light-yellow in colour, and comes in the form of crystals or powder. It can dissolve in water. Ascorbic acid was the first chemical compound to be synthesized, and identified, as vitamin C. Other types of vitamin C are salts and esters of ascorbic acid.
Name
The name is derived from a- (meaning "no") and scorbutus (scurvy), the disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C.
Chemistry
Ascorbic acid is a type of organic acid called a reductone. Unlike many other organic acids, it is not a carboxylic acid but an enediol.[1]
Ascorbic Acid Media
- Ascorbate resonance.png
Canonical forms in resonance
- Ascorbic diketone.png
- Ascorbicdiketone
- L-Semidehydroascorbinsäure.svg
Semidehydroascorbate acid radical
- Dehydroascorbic acid 2.svg
Structure of dehydroascorbic acid with Mono- and Dihydrate. Created with BKchem and Inkscape.
- Synthesis ascorbic acid.svg
The outdated but historically significant industrial synthesis of ascorbic acid from glucose via the Reichstein process
Sources
- ↑ International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. "Reductones". Compendium of Chemical Terminology Internet edition.
