Further to my series on misinformation on vitamin C I am going to explain why there are numerous vitamin C’s on the market all claiming to be the best version of the only version that works as an antioxidant.
Firstly, vitamin C is a carbohydrate. It is not an acid, mineral ascorbate or a man-made ascorbyl.
The big issue with vitamin C is that it is a very unstable molecule and when exposed to water or air, will oxidise within 10 to 15 seconds into ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is the used-up version of vitamin C and has no antioxidant activity.
Vitamin C is NOT an ascorbic acid, a mineral ascorbate, ascorbyl palmitate or D-Isoascorbic acid. These are just a few of the synthetic substances that claim to be vitamin C which contain ZERO antioxidant activity of plant-based vitamin C.
So why is ascorbic acid used so widely? My theory is that it’s the closest molecule to vitamin C we can manufacture synthetically. It’s unfortunate that it has no activity compare to vitamin C and is so acidic it will cause chemical burns.
The industry realised that ascorbic acid was harmful due to its acidity, so a mineral was added to its chemical structure and mineral ascorbates were created. Mineral ascorbates are pH neutral but lack the activity of an antioxidant and are difficult to formulate into water soluble products thus are mainly used in powdered products.
The industry then wanted to claim vitamin C activity in oil soluble products, so they created ascorbyl palmitate. Ascorbyl palmitate has no antioxidant activity so why it would be created considering vitamin E (tocopherol) & vitamin A (carotenes) are oil soluble natural antioxidants.
Ascorbyl Glucoside is the latest synthetic vitamin C to hit the market. It is far more water soluble than the mineral ascorbates and is pH neutral but again lacks the antioxidant activity of vitamin C.
Vitamin C is critical to our wellbeing. Vitamin C is necessary for the growth, development and repair of all body tissues. It’s involved in many body functions, including formation of collagen, absorption of iron, the immune system, wound healing, and the maintenance of cartilage, bones, and teeth.
Vitamin C is an extremely unstable molecule so the question was how plants keep stable the vitamin C they create.
Plants produce vitamin C in an airless and waterless environment within their cellular matrix. The plant produces a liquid matrix that surrounds the vitamin C molecule ensuring that it is protected from degradation / oxidation. The plant then transports the vitamin C molecules to areas in the plant it is needed and also stored.
I realised that to be able to extract pure plant vitamin C, we would also need to extract the liquid matrix the plant produces to protect it with an extraction technique that didn’t damage the plants delicate cellular matrix.
I developed the technology for this extraction technique which I called CLECS™ (cold liquid extraction closed system) over ten years ago. To this day, we are still refining the process. The result is the world’s first liquid stable vitamin C that has all the great attributes vitamin C is renowned for. For the first time, true vitamin C can be delivered to your skin or taken orally without having to eat fruit or vegetables.
I hope this gives clarity on what vitamin C truly is.
