22 June 2015

Determination of Vitamin C concentration by Titation

Group member:
Pratchaya Phetcharawan (Babe) No.14
Natsompol Sungpaiboon (Mild) No.17
Seen Wattanawaragorn (Sean) No.24
Andrew Chitphakdithai (Andy) No.4
Akarachai Nairiyasaj (Toy) No.11
Introduction:
Food preservation is a process or technique that helps to preserve food by
removing at least one factor that bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms need to
survive. There are a lot of food preservation methods such as drying(dehydration),
canning, freezing etc. The benefits of food preservation are prevention the spoiled food,
increasing the safe storage period etc. First, Drying or dehydration is a process that
removes water or moisture from food by heating. It is one of oldest food preservation
method originated in Middle Eastern and Oriental cultures in 12,000 B.C. Bacteria might
happen if the process is not done properly. A way to protect is to control the temperature
and air circulation because this method will reduce the remained moisture in the food.
There are many advantages of drying including longer storage, convenience, smaller and
lighter weight etc. Second, canning, is a process that preserves food by heating and
sealing it in container storages. This process might produce bacteria called Clostidium
Botulinum which caused by the improper canning techniques. So, its important to make
sure that the temperature is high enough to kill the bacteria. The last one is freezing. It is
a process that preserves the peak of freshness of food by preparing, packaging and
freezing. This process has to be done as fast as possible in order to maintain the
freshness because they can lose their nutrients during the process. The low temperature
will stop the bacterias growth. In this experiment, we will do only drying and freezing
and compare them about the amount of Vitamin C in different methods of food
preservation. So the method that we use is Titration.
Titration is a method that uses the known concentration solution to find the
concentration of unknown solution by using the indicator to know the end point of
process. For this experiment, we use iodine as the known concentration of solution and
the indicator that we use is starch indicator. Actually the utimate goal of this experiment
is to find the concentration of Vitamin C by applying the formula of molarity. The
formula is Molarity(concentration) = M = Numbers of mole/ volume in liters. Then find
the number of moles per gram fruit which indicates the amount of vitamin C.
Hypothesis:
If we perform the titration correctly, then the fresh kiwi will have the most
amount of vitaminC, then followed by frozen and dehydrated as the least amount of
Vitamin C
Purpose:
To find the concentration of Vitamin C by titration from the different methods of
food preservations.

Materials:
1. Burette and Stand

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100 mL or 200mL volumetric flask

20 mL pipette
10 mL and 100 mL measuring cylinders
250 mL conical flask
Starch indicator solution
Iodine solution
Lab Coats
Gloves
Safety goggles
Closed footwear

Procedure: Sample preparation

1. Cut a 100 g sample into small pieces and grind.
2. Add 10 mL portions of distilled water several times while grinding thesample, each
time removing the liquid into a 100 mL volumetric flask.
3. Strain the ground fruit through cheesecloth, rinsing with distilled water.
4. Make the extracted solution up to 100 mL with distilled water.
Procedure: Titration
1. Pipette 20 mL of the sample solution into a 250 mL conical flask
2. Add about 80 mL of distilled water.
3. Add 1 mL of starch indicator solution.
4. Titrate the sample with the iodine solution. The endpoint of the titration is identified
as the first permanent trace of a color change.
5. Repeat the titration 3x.
6. Repeat the titration procedure for either the dehydrated fruit or the frozen fruit.
Data table 1: Fresh Kiwi
Volume (mL)

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Average

Iodine

6 mL

5.6 mL

5.6 mL

5.73 mL

Sample (Fresh Kiwi)

21 mL

20 mL

20 mL

20.3 mL

Data table 2: Dehydrated Kiwi

Volume

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Average

Iodine

9.8 mL

7.2 mL

7.1 mL

8.03 mL

Sample (Dehydrated Kiwi)

20 mL

20 mL

20 mL

20 mL

Data table 3: Frozen Kiwi

Volume

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Average

Iodine

3.5 mL

3 mL

3.2 mL

3.23 mL

Sample (Frozen Kiwi)

20.2 mL

19.9 mL

20 mL

20.03 mL

Calculation1: Fresh Kiwi

Step 1: Find the amount of grams of fruit in your volume of sample.
624.73 grams/ 1.25 L = X grams/ Average amount of Fresh kiwi in Liter
X = 10.16 grams
Step 2: Find the number of moles of ascorbic acid by using the equation to find the
number of moles of iodine used:
M(concentration of iodine) = Numbers of mole/ volume of iodine in liters.
0.005 mol/L = Y/0 .005633 L
Y = number of moles = 0.0000281 mol
Step 3: Find the number of moles per gram of fruit using the number of grams of your
sample and the number of moles of ascorbic acid
number of moles per gram of fruit(mol/g) = Y/X
number of moles per gram of fruit = 0.0000281 mol/10.16 grams
= 2.77 x 10-6 moles / gram of fruit
Calculation2: Dehydrated Kiwi
Step 1: Find the amount of grams of fruit in your volume of sample.
103.24 grams/ 0.8 = X grams / Average amount of Dehydrated Kiwi in Liter
X = 2.581 grams
Step 2: Find the number of moles of ascorbic acid by using the equation to find the
number of moles of iodine used:
M(concentration of iodine) = Numbers of mole/ volume of iodine in liters.
0.005 mol/L = Y/0.008166 L
Y = 0.0000408 mol
Step 3: Find the number of moles per gram of fruit using the number of grams of your
sample and the number of moles of ascorbic acid
number of moles per gram of fruit(mol/g) = Y/X
number of moles per gram of fruit = 0.0000408 mol/2.581 grams
= 0.1582 x 10-3 moles / gram of fruit
Calculation3: Frozen Kiwi
Step 1: Find the amount of grams of fruit in your volume of sample.

647.22 grams/ 0.65 L = X grams/ Average amount of Frozen kiwi in Liter

X = 19.947 grams
Step 2: Find the number of moles of ascorbic acid by using the equation to find the
number of moles of iodine used:
M(concentration of iodine) = Numbers of mole/ volume of iodine in liters.
0.005 mol/L = Y/0.0032 L
Y = 0.000016 mol
Step 3: Find the number of moles per gram of fruit using the number of grams of your
sample and the number of moles of ascorbic acid
number of moles per gram of fruit(mol/g) = Y/X
number of moles per gram of fruit = 0.000016mol/19.947 grams
= 0.0000008 moles / gram of fruit

Analyzing Result
1. Which form of food preservation contained the highest concentration of Vitamin C
(ascorbic acid)? You need to collect the data from the other groups for the samples you
did not titrate.
Dehydration Kiwi contained the highest concentration of Vitamin C, then Fresh kiwi and
Frozen Kiwi had the least concentration of Vitamin C. From the data table, we can
compare the amout of iodine that we use in this experiment which mean the more
amount of iodine means the higher amount of concentration of vitamin C.
2. Were your hypotheses correct? Explain. What might be some reasons to explain why
your hypotheses were not correct?
- No, our hypothesis is that the fresh Kiwi will have the highest concentration of vitamin
C, then Frozen Kiwi and the dehydration Kiwi have the least. Our hypothesis was wrong
because there was a mistake when 3 types of Kiwi were being prepared. When the
dehydrated Kiwi was taken vitamin C out, the amount of water that use to do it was to
less making the Fresh and Frozen Kiwi have the double amount of water in it and
causing the vitamin being less than the dehydraed Kiwi. Also ,in the experiment ,we
might add too much Iodine which made the titration incorrectly. So It was fail.
3. From this experiment, do you think you could predict the concentration of all vitamins
and minerals in a food prepared with the different preservation techniques? (Think: Are
all vitamins and minerals the same?) Explain.
-No, because different perservation contained different of amount vitamin C that is why
we cant predict the concentration of all vitamins and minerals in food. Vitamin C is
nutrient that can be soluble in water because of its property. When we put the water or
the solution that composed of water in food. It will be dissolved and the amount of
vitamin will not be accurate. In the other hand, Fat-soluble vitamins such Vitamin A D E
K which can be dissolved in hydrophobic solution (non-polar). So we cant use this
technique for these nutrients.
Conclusion:

In this experiment, our hypothesis is not correct but actually its supposed to be
like this because there are 2 reasons that makes mistakes in this experiment. First, The
result is not accurate because we added too much amount of iodine even though the
process already reached the end point( The color is hard to observe for us especially the
dehydrated one). So, the value that we got is not much accurate. Second, a big mistake,
while Ms.Tara and Mr.Mek were preparing food as the food preservation method such as
fresh kiwi, dehydrated kiwi, and frozen kiwi. They forgot to think about the dehydrated
kiwi because this process took a lot of water out of the food. While fresh and frozen
contain double amount of water, the water will dilute the concentration of Vitamin C in
both of them.
The food that we used to study is Kiwi. It was already prepared in 3 different food
preservation methods including drying, Freezing and fresh kiwi. After we had all
different Kiwi. We did a titration to find the concentration of Vitamin in each Kiwi that
which method is the best method to preserve Vitamin. First, we did Fresh kiwi. We
added 20.3 mL of fresh kiwi , 5.73 mL of iodine, and the starch indicator. Then the color
of fresh kiwi was gradually changed from light green to dark green which means it
reached the end point. But our result was fail for 3 trials because we added too much
iodine in the conical flask. Then we used a number of used iodine as the known
concentration of solution to find the concentration of Vitamin C. The number of moles
per gram of fresh kiwi is 2.77 x 10-6 moles / gram of fruit. Then our groups chose
dehydrated kiwi to find its concentration of Vitamin C. The color of dehydrated kiwi is
light brown. Also it smells weirdly. Then we did the same process as we did fresh kiwi.
The amount of dehydrated kiwi that we used is 8.03 mL and the amount of iodine is 20
mL. After we did the titration, the process reached the end point, the color of dehydrated
kiwi was became darker. So we calculated the number of moles per gram of dehydrated
kiwi which can indicate the concentraition of Vitamin C in it. After the calculation, we
found that the number of moles per gram of dehydrated kiwi is 0.1582 x 10-3 moles /
gram of fruit .The last one is frozen. We didnt do it in lab because we seperated to do
between dehydrated and frozen kiwi. So the amount of iodine that we got from other
groups is 3.23 mL. The amount of frozen kiwi is 20.03 mL. After calculation by using the
formula of molarity, we got 0.0000008 moles / gram of fruit as the number of moles per
gram of frozen kiwi.
As the results that we got all the number of moles of 3 different kiwi. The highest
concentration of Vitamin C is dehydrated kiwi because it contains the highest amount of
Vitamin C. But actually the best method that preserve kiwi is fresh kiwi because it lost
the nutrient the least. The reason that dehydrated kiwi has the highest because of the
mistake in this experiment that I mentioned in the first paragraph. So the best
preserving method is Fresh kiwi, Frozen kiwi and dehydrated kiwi respectively.
In this experiment, we should have done the titration better than this time
because the amount of iodine is too much which caused the inaccurate results. So next
time we should observe more intensively. Also we learned that food preservation lose a
lot of nutrient such as Vitamin C but it can make food last longer. And this experiment
remind us about how to use the formula that used to find concentration too.