ABSTRACT.

ANALYSIS VITAMIN C CONTENT IN COMMERCIAL FRUIT JUICE SAMPLES SUCH AS APPLE JUICE, GUAVA JUICE AND MANGO JUICE. The objective of study are determination vitamin C content in three commercial fruit juices (apple, guava and mango) using titration method. Beside that, comparing vitamin C content determined and to that stated on the label for each fruit juice sample. To relate the amount of vitamin C present at the time of consumption based on the expired date. Sample to determine vitamin C is apple juice, mango juice and guava juice in commercial fruit juice on different expiry date. From different expiry date can get different shelf life before expired days. Method to determine vitamin C in commercial fruit juice is titration method with iodine solution. Titration method is accurate and precision method compare another methods. From the result the higher amount of vitamin C was guava juice about 183 g/100mL for nature fruit and 20.25 g/100mL for commercial fruit juice. Following mango juice was about 28 g/100mL for nature fruit and 16.40 for commercial fruit juice. The lower amount of vitamin C was apple juice about 6 g/100 mL for nature fruit and 5.33 g/100mL for commercial fruit juice. However mango juice and guava juice were suitable to drinking compared apple juices because apple juice has lower vitamin C contained and the higher loss of vitamin C content. According from analysis, the longer shelf life before expiry, the higher amount of vitamin C in fruit juice. However, apple juice was lower amount of vitamin C because the range of vitamin C content was shorter

INTRODUCTION . Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is important to the body for prevention of scurvy. Scurvy is caused by lack of vitamin C in the body which can affect

muscles weakness, swollen and bleeding of gums, loss of teeth and bleeding under the skin as well as tiredness and depression. Figure 1.0 show that the structure of vitamin C or ascorbic acid. Fruit juices are liquid naturally contained in fruit or vegetables tissue. Juices are prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fresh fruits or vegetables without the application of heat or solvents. The labels on fruit juice package may be misleading as the companies may underestimate or overestimate the actual content. Thus, the problem is that the consumers do not know the actual amount of vitamin C in the fruit juices, unless the amount of vitamin C is stated on the label of the package.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Vitamin C or ascorbic acid can be obtained from fruits or vegetables. Vitamin C also acts as an antioxidant, scavenging potential harmful molecules called free radicals. Although not firmly established by clinic trials, this antioxidant capacity may help boost immune function, protect against cancer, cataracts, agerelated macular degeneration of the retina and other chronic diseases. Vitamin C intake may be particularly helpful to smokers, as they are more likely to suffer from oxidative stress and cell damage that can deplete vitamin C.

Methods of determining vitamin C.

Methods which can be applied to determine vitamin C in fruits or vitamin supplement can be summarised into five methods such as direct titration with iodine solution, titration with dichlorolindophenol solution, using capillary electrophoresis with UV-VIS and diode array detection in high performance liquid chromatography [HPLC], using ion-pair reversed phase in HPLC and UVdiode detection and enzymatic method.

Direct titration.
Determination vitamin C concentration involves iodine and iodate solution in a redox titration method. When iodine solution is a titrant, vitamin C is oxidised to form dehydroascorbic acid while the iodine is reduced to iodide ions. When all vitamin C has finished, the excess iodine solution will react will starch solution to form blue-black colour as endpoint of titration (ascorbic acid + I2 2I + dehydroascorbic acid). This method is a straight forward compared to the COPYRIGHT UiTM5 alternative method using iodate as the titrant Potassium iodate stable compared to iodine and it does not have to be standardized as it is a primary standard. The iodine solution needs to be standardised with pure vitamin C or potassium thiosulphate because an iodine is unstable. mango juice and guava juice in commercial fruit juic