COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON THE DETERMINATION OF ASCORBIC ACID CONTENT IN SOME SELECTED FRUITS IN BENIN CITYUSING TITRIMETRIC AND SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC METHODS
Ascorbic acid is an essential water-soluble vitamin that is only available to humans through
dietary supplements such as the intake of fruits, vegetables, and drugs. In this study, the
quantification of ascorbic acid in five different fruits – apple, guava, orange, pineapple, and
watermelon were carried out using titrimetric and spectrophotometric method. Irrespective of
the method of analysis employed, guava contained the highest amount of ascorbic acid
215.600mg/100 g for the titrimetric method. This was followed by orange with an ascorbic acid
content of95.500mg/100 g. Pineapple, watermelon, and Apple gave values of 77.80, 11.800
and 8.500mg per 100 g of samples respectively. Spectrophotometric analysis of the ascorbic
acid of the fruit samples also followed the same order (guava > orange > pineapple >
watermelon > apple) with values of 223.000, 96.741, 78.411, 12.220 and 8.147 mg per 100 g of
the respective fruit samples obtained. Although spectrophotometric method gave higher values
of ascorbic acid in respective fruit extractsrelative to the titrimetric method, a p-value of 0.97
obtained from the statistical analysis (one-way ANOVA), revealed that there was no significant
difference between the mean values, thus, either method is efficient in quantifying ascorbic acid
in fruits. The findings shows that the consumption of 100 g of either pineapple, guava or orange
sourced from our local market meets the prescribed US recommended dietary allowance (RDA)
of 90 and 75mg/day for an adult male and female and a combination of these fruits can meet
the requirement of ascorbic acid for others based on their health conditions