Ascorbate in plasma as measured by liquid chromatography and by dichlorophenolindophenol colorimetry.

Abstract

Abstract Ascorbic acid was measured in 125 plasma samples by an automated colorimetric method involving dichlorophenolindophenol and by a "high-performance" liquid-chromatographic procedure with electrochemical detection. The two methods gave comparable results for samples with ascorbate concentrations of 1 to 20 mg/L (r = 0.97). We also measured the amount of total ascorbate (ascorbic acid + dehydroascorbic acid) in the same samples by a liquid-chromatographic procedure with precolumn derivitization of ascorbic acid. We confirmed that plasma contains little dehydroascorbic acid.