Vitamin C is widely found in many fruits and vegetables. It is the primary water-soluble anti-oxidant which prevents free-radicals generation in the body and damage to tissues. This investigation aims to quantitatively determine the vitamin-C content of orange and pineapple, by iodometric analysis. Six oranges and two pineapples were purchased from a local fruit vendor in Ilaro town, Ogun State. The fruits were equally divided into two groups each, where one group was left for seven days to naturally rot after being cut-open and exposed to initiate and hasten rotting; to obtain diseased fruit samples but the other group was not, hence, taken as healthy fruit samples. The healthy fruits were surface-disinfected with ethanol. The indicator dichlorophenol indophenol was used to qualitatively test for ascorbic acid in the fruits. Distilled water served as a control. The amount of ascorbic acid in each sample was determined by iodometry. The test showed that vitamin C is present in all the samples but absent in the distilled water. The healthy oranges showed a greater value of 111.5mg/100ml as compared to 75.8mg/100ml of the rotten oranges, also, the healthy pineapple showed a greater value of 34.1mg/100ml as compared to 15.8mg/100ml of the rotten pineapple. It was discovered that the healthy fruits relatively contained more ascorbic acid than the diseased ones. It can be concluded that iodometry could be potentially utilized in the quantitative assay for ascorbic acid, though with standardization, in fruits as an alternative to spectrophotometry, especially in the absence of electricity
O. Oduwobi Oludayo (Mon,) studied this question.