Handbook of Vitamin C Research

In: Handbook of Vitamin C Research: ISBN: 978-1-60741-874-0Editors: Hubert Kucharski and Julek Zajac©2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.Chapter VIEncapsulation Devices for Vitamin CMagdalena Stevanović 1 and Dragan Uskoković 11 Institute of Technical Sciences of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts,Belgrade, SerbiaAbstractVitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a very important water-soluble vitamin. Itis essential for preserving optimal health and it is used by the body for many purposes.Vitamin C promotes collagen biosynthesis, provides photoprotection, causes melaninreduction, enhances the immunity (anti-virus effect), etc. Vitamin C is a highly effectiveantioxidant. Even in small amounts vitamin C can protect indispensable molecules in thebody, such as proteins, lipids (fats), carbohydrates, and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA)from damage by free radicals and reactive oxygen species that can be generated duringnormal metabolism as well as through exposure to toxins and pollutants (e.g. smoking).Vitamin C may be involved in the reduction of the risk of certain types of cancer. Anumber of in vitro and in vivo experiments have been performed in order to evaluate theability of ascorbic acid to prevent the adverse effects, increase the effects of, anddecrease resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. The problem is that ascorbic acid is veryunstable to air, light, heat, moisture, metal ions, oxygen, and base, and it easilydecomposes into biologically inactive compounds such as 2,3-diketo-L-gulonic acid,oxalic acid, L-threonic acid, L-xylonic acid and L-lyxonic acid. This makes its use verylimited in the field of pharmaceuticals, dermatologicals and cosmetics. In order toovercome the chemical instability of the ascorbic acid numerous researches have beenstaged toward its encapsulation or immobilization. The ascorbic acid introduced in thebody in the greater portion is isolated from the body. However, the encapsulated ascorbicacid within, for example, the polymeric matrix should have significantly higherefficiency. The present review attempts to address some important issues related tovarious methods which are employed to encapsulate ascorbic acid, such as thermal phaseseparation, melt dispersion, solvent evaporation, spray drying, homogenization of waterand organic phases, etc. This review also gives a comparation of the characteristics ofascorbic acid nano and microparticles prepared by different methods. The materials in