Catalytic Oxidation of Ascorbic Acid

BARRON et al.1 showed that ascorbic acid is not autoxidizable in acid solutions up to pH 7. They investigated the catalytic effect of salts of manganese, nickel, iron, cobalt, calcium and copper at pH 4–6 and found that copper alone had a marked catalytic effect. Mack and Kertesz2 found that iron had no catalytic effect alone but increased the catalytic effect of copper.