Flow injection titrimetric analysis of vitamin C in pharmaceutical products

A flow injection titrimetric method for the assay of vitamin C using cerium(IV) was developed. A 157 μl vitamin C solution was injected into a carrier stream of 7.48 × 10^-3M cerium(IV) prepared in 0.10M sulfuric acid flowing at a rate of 5.0 ml/min. A 1.3 ml mixing chamber was employed for dispersion of the resultant solution which was propelled through a flow-through cell and detected using the spectrophotometer at a wavelength monitored at 410 nm. The method was applied to the determination of vitamin C in pharmaceutical preparations and a high accuracy was attained when compared with the British Pharmacoepeia (BP) method. Excellent precision indicated by a relative standard deviation of less than 0.9% was always obtained. No interferences were encountered and as many as 36 samples per hour were reached for throughput.