Abstract

Physical health is continually changing. Working to maintain vitamins and staying healthy are sufficient goals in life. 1 in 20 people has a vitamin C deficiency, causing fatigue, gum inflammation, and joint pain. To help combat this problem, I conducted an experiment to see which fruit juice loses the least amount of vitamin C over time, while comparing store-bought juice to homemade juice.

The juices tested were apple juice, mango juice, peach juice, grape juice, and orange juice, store-bought and homemade versions of each of them. The control variable was obtained by dissolving a vitamin C tablet in water to get 135 milligrams of vitamin C per milliliter. Using the indophenol solution, the number of drops needed to oxidize the vitamin C in the juices were found during three periods of time: after zero days, after five days, and after ten days. In the beginning, the store-bought and homemade orange juice attributed to the highest level of vitamin C, with the store-bought orange juice having 1.19 mg/ml of vitamin C and the homemade having orange juice 1.41 mg/ml. The store-bought mango juice and peach juice came afterward. The rest of the juices attributed to very low vitamin C. After 5 days, the orange juice (both store-bought and homemade) lost 0.1 mg/ml of vitamin C, while the other juices lost 50% of their original vitamin C. After 10 days, it was concluded that orange juice had the highest vitamin C left. The store-bought orange juice lost 1 mg/ml compared to ten days prior whereas the homemade juice only lost 0.1 mg/ml. The other juices tested relatively stayed as they had five days prior, losing 50% of their original vitamin C. The conclusion reached was that orange juice loses the least amount of vitamin C over time, with store-bought juice oxidizing more than the homemade one.