| Peer-Reviewed

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

Received: 3 September 2018     Accepted: 19 September 2018     Published: 31 October 2018
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

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.

Published in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (Volume 3, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15
Page(s) 47-50
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Friability, Disintegration, Ascorbic Acid, UV Spectrophotometer

References
[1] Akinyandenu, O. (2013). Counterfeit drugs in Nigeria: A threat to public health. African Journal of Pharmacy andPharmacology. 7(36), pp. 2571-2576.
[2] Bajaj, S. S and Gupta, A. K. (2012). Introduction to pharmaceutics – II, CBS Publishers and Distributors, India, pp52-53.
[3] Eichie, F. E. and Kudehinbu, A. O. (2009). Effect of particle size of granules on some mechanical properties of paracetamol tablets. African Journal of Biotechnology. 8(21), pp. 5913-5916.
[4] Finkel, R., Cubeddu, L. X. and Clark, M. A. (2009). Pharmacology, 4th edition, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, U.S.A, pp 20-24,502,510.
[5] Gangwar, S., Singh, S., Garg, G., Garg, V., & Sharma, P., K. (2010). To Compare the Disintegrating Property Of Papaya Starch And Sago Starch In Paracetamol Tablets. International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2(2), pp. 148-151.
[6] Gupta, L. C., Gupta, A. and Gupta, K. (2009). Dictionary of pharmacy, Virender Kumar, India, pp207-208.
[7] James, M. R., Lionel, D. L., Timothy, G. K. and Albert, F. (2008). A Text book of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Hodder Arnold, Britain, pp24-30.
[8] Jones, M. and Carey, F., (2012). Organic Chemistry, 5th edition, Norton publisher, London, Pp 879-896.
[9] Katzung, B. G. (2007). Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, MC Graw-Hill Companies, U.S.A, pp50-60.
[10] Lacy, F. L., Armstrong, L. L., Goldman, P. M. and Leonard, L. L. (2011). Drug Information Handbook, Lexi-Comp Inc, USA, pp25-27.
[11] Ngwuluka, N. C., Idiakhoa, B. A, Nep, E. I., Ogaji, I. and Okafor, I. S. (2010). Formulation and evaluation of paracetamol tablets manufactured using the dried fruit of Phoenix dactylifera Linn as an Excipient, Research In Pharmaceutical Biotechnology;2(3), pp.25-32.
[12] Sakai, J. B. (2009) Practical Pharmacology for Pharmacy technicians, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, U.S.A. pp669-673.
[13] The British pharmacopoeia (2013). Pharmaceutical press. London, pp326,799-800
[14] The pharmaceutical codex, (2013). Pharmaceutical press. London, pp638-640
[15] Tripathi, K. D. (2014). Essentials of Medical Pharmacology, Jaypee Brothers Medical publishers Ltd, India, pp11-23
[16] United States Pharmacopoeia (2012). The Official Compendia of Standards, volume II, pp1269.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Kingsley Ogemdi Iwuozor. (2018). Quality Assessment of Selected Vitamin C Tablets Sold at Bridge Head Market, Onitsha. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 3(3), 47-50. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Kingsley Ogemdi Iwuozor. Quality Assessment of Selected Vitamin C Tablets Sold at Bridge Head Market, Onitsha. Chem. Biomol. Eng. 2018, 3(3), 47-50. doi: 10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Kingsley Ogemdi Iwuozor. Quality Assessment of Selected Vitamin C Tablets Sold at Bridge Head Market, Onitsha. Chem Biomol Eng. 2018;3(3):47-50. doi: 10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15,
      author = {Kingsley Ogemdi Iwuozor},
      title = {Quality Assessment of Selected Vitamin C Tablets Sold at Bridge Head Market, Onitsha},
      journal = {Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering},
      volume = {3},
      number = {3},
      pages = {47-50},
      doi = {10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cbe.20180303.15},
      abstract = {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.},
     year = {2018}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Quality Assessment of Selected Vitamin C Tablets Sold at Bridge Head Market, Onitsha
    AU  - Kingsley Ogemdi Iwuozor
    Y1  - 2018/10/31
    PY  - 2018
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15
    DO  - 10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15
    T2  - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
    JF  - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
    JO  - Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
    SP  - 47
    EP  - 50
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2578-8884
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cbe.20180303.15
    AB  - 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.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Awka, Nigeria

  • Sections