Colorimetric Determination of Ascorbic Acid Based on Its Interfering Effect in the Enzymatic Analysis of Glucose: An Approach Using Smartphone Image Analysis

The use of digital image analysis as an analytical tool is a reality nowadays, and the use of smartphones stands out due to its high accessibility and practicality. Ascorbic acid (AA) is a natural and essential vitamin available as a supplement as a result of its use in preventing and treating several pathologies. This paper reports a simple, fast and low cost method using smartphone image analysis for quantification of AA based on its interfering effect in the enzymatic colorimetric detection of glucose. Commercial vitamin C tablets were used as prediction set for AA quantification, showing very satisfactory results (relative errors < 4%), where no statistical difference at a 95% confidence level was observed between the AA content estimated by the imaging method and the labeled reference values. As advantages, this method does not use expensive reagents neither laborious procedures to carry out the analysis.