Investigation Lab: Vitamin C Content

Name: Alexus Huggins

Shannia Keizer

Alinka James

Form: Five (5) Combined

Subject: Chemistry/Physics/Biology

Teacher: Mr. Ryan

School: Bishop`s College Kingstown

Territory: St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Part A – The Proposal

Observation: Many fruits juice and artificial juice are claim to be high in vitamin C a parent told you
that natural fruit juice is the best source of vitamin C. plan and design an experiment to confirm or
disprove.

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Hypothesis: Concentrated orange juice is the best source for vitamin C base on their nutritional facts
sheet.

Aim: To compare the concentration of vitamin C in natural and artificial fruit juices.

Materials: freshly squeezed orange juice, local stored orange juice, concentrates orange juice
(minute maid), process orange juice (fruta), artificial orange juice (soda/ busta), burette, iodine,
conical flask, pipette, calculator.

Method: Prepare five (5) orange juice solution, concentrates orange juice (minute maid), artificial
orange juice(busta), freshly squeeze orange juice, local cold store orange juice, process orange juice
(fruta). By diluting one serving of each juice with distilled water in 250 ml volumetric flask.

Rinse the burette with some iodine solution and fill it with the same iodine solution, then rinse five
(5) pipettes for each sample with some of that sample. Measure 25 cm³ of each sample in their
pipette and run into 3-5 conical flask. Add ten drops of starch indicator to the conical flask and swirl
to mix the contents.

Carry out a titration and add the iodine solution until the color blue black is obtained. Record each
result. Using the volume calculate the molar concentration and the mass concentration of each
sample.

Controlled Variables: Volume of samples, Drops of starch indicator and Concentration of iodine

Independent Variables: Type of fruit juices

Dependent Variables: Concentration of vitamin C in each sample.

Display/treatment of results:

Type of Juices Burette Reading Titration Number

Rough 1 2 3
Freshly squeezed orange Final reading/cm3
juice
Initial reading/cm3
Volume of acid
added/cm3
Local stored orange juice Final reading/cm3
Initial reading/cm3
Volume of acid
added/cm3
Concentrated orange juice Final reading/cm3
(minute mad) Initial reading/cm3
Volume of acid
added/cm3
Process orange juice (fruta) Final reading/cm3
Initial reading/cm3

2
 Volume of acid
added/cm3
Artificial orange juice Final reading/cm3
(soda/busta) Initial reading/cm3
Volume of acid
added/cm3

TABLE SHOWING THE RESULTS OF TITRATION FOR DIFFERENT FRUITS JUICES V.S IODINE SOLUTION

Expected Results:

Minute maid orange juice is expected to have the highest concentration because most of the water
was removed from the juice, and it has a longer shelf-life. Additionally, this extract is much lighter th
an it was before the concentration process took place, which means it’s more economical to ship an
d easier to stock.

Local orange juice is expected to have the second highest concentration because it isn’t heavily
processed, so it tends to have more vitamin C because It’s not getting rid of the pulp while freshly
squeezed orange juice is expected to have the third highest concentration. Fresh juices tend to
waste a significant portion of the pulp.

Artificial orange juice is expected to have a low concentration because they have added vitamins C
for the purpose of meeting the requirement for a 200 calories diet while soda (busta) tend to have
no added vitamin C.

Sources of errors: In reading the burette scale parallax errors will occur.

Precaution: Rinse the burette with the iodine and pipette with samples to ensure that no other
solution is found within the apparatus.

Limitations: Orange juice have citric acid so therefore when using the iodine solution, the value will
appear more than it actually is.

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 Part B – Analysis and Interpretation

Method:

four (4) orange juice solution was prepared, concentrates orange juice (minute maid), artificial
orange juice (Ju-C), freshly squeeze orange juice and process orange juice (Fruta). By diluting one
serving of each juice with distilled water in 500 ml volumetric flask.

The burette was rinse with some iodine solution and then fill with the same iodine solution; four (4)
pipette was rinse for each sample with some of that same sample. 25 cm³ of each sample was
measured in their pipette and poured in 3-5 conical flask. Ten drops of starch indicator were added
to the conical flask and was swirl to mix the contents.

A titration was carried out and iodine solution was added until the color blue black was obtained.
Each result was recorded. Using the volume of iodine used per 10ml of fruit juice compare the
relative concentration for each sample.

Results:

Type of Juices Burette Reading Titration Number

Rough 1 2

4
 Freshly squeezed orange juice Final reading/cm3 1.2 12.1 13.2

Initial reading/cm3 0.0 11.1 12.1

Volume of acid 1.2 1.0 1.1
added/cm3

Concentrated orange juice Final reading/cm3 20.5 21.0 21.5

(minute mad)
Initial reading/cm3 20.0 20.5 21.0
Volume of acid 0.5 0.5 0.5
added/cm3

Process orange juice (fruta) Final reading/cm3 23.0 26.4 28.4

Initial reading/cm3 21.5 25.0 27.0
Volume of acid 1.5 1.4 1.4
added/cm3

Artificial orange juice (soda/Ju- Final reading/cm3 14.1 14.5 14.9

C)
Initial reading/cm3 13.2 14.1 14.5
Volume of acid 0.9 0.4 0.4
added/cm3

TABLE SHOWING THE RESULTS OF TITRATION FOR DIFFERENT FRUITS JUICES V.S IODINE SOLUTION

Serving Sizes

Fresh Orange = 10ml

Minute Maid = 100ml

Fruta = 250ml

Ju-C = 350ml

Calculations

Equation

Ascorbic acid+I2---->2I- + dehydroascorbic acid

Freshly squeezed orange juice

Volume used = 25 x serving size / 500

= 25 x 10 / 500

= 0.5 cm3

Volume of iodine per 10 ml = average titre x10 / volume used

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 = 1.05 x 10 / 0.5

= 21 cm3

Concentrated Orange juice

Volume used = 25 x serving size / 500

= 25 x 100 / 500

= 5 cm3

Volume of iodine per 10 ml = average titre x10 / volume used

= 0.5 x 10 / 5

= 1 cm3

Process orange juice

Volume used = 25 x serving size / 500

= 25 x 250 / 500

= 12.5 cm3

Volume of iodine per 10 ml = average titre x10 / volume used

= 1.40 x 10 / 12.5

= 1.12 cm3

Orange soda

Volume used = 25 x serving size / 500

= 25 x 350 / 500

= 17.5 cm3

Volume of iodine per 10 ml = average titre x10 / volume used

= 0.40 x 10 / 17.5

= 0.23 cm3

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Discussion

This method determines the vitamin C content in a solution by a redox titration with potassium
iodate in the presence of iodide. Vitamin C also known as ascorbic acid is an essential antioxidant
needed by the human body.

Iodine oxidizes the ascorbic acid to dehydroascorbic acid as the iodide ions.

Ascorbic acid+12------>2.1-+dehydroascorbic acid

Due to this reaction the iodine formed is immediately reduced to iodide as long as there is any
ascorbic acid present. Once all the ascorbic acid had been oxidized the excess iodine is free to react
with the starch indicator forming the blue-black starch-iodine complex. This is the endpoint of the
titration.

Freshly squeezed orange juice has the highest concentration if vitamin c while soda has the lowest.

In terms of serving size a minute maid is twice the size of 1 orange but still one orange has more
concentration of vitamin c than a minute maid.

Orange soda juice has the least vitamin c this may be due to the fact that the soda containing has
artificial flavors.

Natural juices will be lower than concentrate because concentrate is from a strong source more
oranges would be used in order for it to be concentrate and it would be stronger the more orange
the more Vitamin c and it is only diluted with water while natural on the other hand will not use as
much orange as the concentrated juice. Natural would be higher than artificial because artificial has
mainly added vitamin c and has artificial colors and flavors.

Limitation: Orange juice have citric acid so therefore when using the iodine solution, the value will
appear more than it actually is.

Reflection: In conclusion our findings can impact society positively the positive effect it will have
on the society is that the people should be encourage to drink more fresh squeezed orange juice
and orange juice from concentrate which have a far more better source of vitamin c and people will
now know which is more healthier and more beneficial to the body, Also a single orange was found
to be a far more better source of Vitamin c than the other juices so it is recommend that for a better
source of Vitamin c persons should use 2-3 fresh squeezed orange juice, the use of natural orange
juice is also beneficial to the environment as this source of orange juice is less damaging to the
environment as artificial and others has high production cost and energy cost, they are often
packaged in plastic which are known to be damaging to the environment. The investigative lab has
benefit us and impacted our life in a positive way because now we know how many Vitamins c we
are putting into our body when we drink these juices and now, we know which drink is the better
buy based on how many vitamins c is in it.

Conclusion:

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In conclusion all the juices were compared and fresh orange juice had the highest vitamin c
concentration while orange soda has the lowest.