Quality Assessment of Selected Vitamin C Tablets Sold at Bridge Head Market, Onitsha

Due to the importance of ascorbic acid in humans, qualitative and quantitative evaluation of ascorbic acid has gained a significant increase in several areas of analytical chemistry such as pharmaceutical analysis. Several analytical methods have been developed. Most of these methods are laborious and some require much reagents that may be either not readily available or are expensive. There is an influx of counterfeit drugs in the market and due to this, two questions come up; are we underdozed? Or overdozed? This is a research on the quality of selected brands of Vitamin C tablets. In this research work, five brands of Vitamin C tablets were purchased at Bridge head market, Onitsha and were analyzed for their percentage content of Ascorbic Acid (active pharmaceutical product), their average percentage friability, disintegration time and hardness using a UV/Vis spectrophotometer, friabilator, disintegration tester and hardness tester. The results showed that they all passed the hardness and disintegration time test. Samples 1, 3, 4, and 5 failed the test for the percentage content of Ascorbic acid; Sample 2 failed the friability test. Sample 2 has proven to have the highest quality and would be able to enact action faster since it has the highest quantity of Ascorbic acid that will be disintegrated at any time and this also means that it will be absorbed into the blood stream faster