Sourcing ascorbic acid

I bought a bottle of Vitamin C powder today at a local GNC store (for

use in developer, of course -- as a supplement, I buy tablets at

Costco).<p>

 

I wasn't impressed with the store help -- when I asked for ascorbic

acid powder, I got "what does that do for you again?" from the counter

person, a young male who appeared just out of his teens.<p>

 

With that straightened out, I found they carried two kinds of Vitamin

C -- one was calcium ascorbate; I didn't like that because the

developer I'll mostly use it in has carbonate alkali, and making chalk

in my developer struck me as likely to cause trouble. After the store

manager, who was stocking a shelf in the back, denied they had any

"pure" ascorbic acid, I happened to pull down a bottle of the "with

rose hips" version.<p>

 

On this, I found the following.<p>

 

Ingredients: Rose Hips<p>

 

Serving size: 1/2 tsp (2060 mg)<br>

Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C): 2000 mg<p>

 

To me, this says that for each 2000 mg of ascorbic acid, there's 60 mg

of something else, and much/most of that "something else" is likely to

be insoluble, so I can filter it out if I think it's causing trouble.<p>

 

As I was paying for the purchase, the same knowledgable help who

didn't know what ascorbic acid was for in a supplement store and

couldn't read their own labels said "I hope you're also taking a good

multivitamin" -- about two minutes after I'd told him this wasn't for

supplement, but a film developer. I told him I did, and he said "I

hope it's ours". I explained I got it at Costco, twice as many

tablets for less than half the price. That, at least, shut him up.<p>

 

I'm certain I overpaid for the ascorbic acid, too -- 8 ounces, 227

grams, for about $13 -- but that's also a multi-year supply when I'll

be using 60 mg at a time for two ounces of microfilm developer.

Barring waste or spoilage, it should be good for more than 3500 rolls

of microfilm; even for 35 mm and the more potent normal developer,

it's more than 200 rolls worth.

It is more expensive than that at http://www.photoformulary.com/

 

But at least they know what it is for :)

 

jmp

Go find a chemical supply store. Higher grade products and cheaper.

Donald, check out my thread at apug dated 5-15-05 re: calcium ascorbate. It may have some useful info.

You can buy sodium ascorbate on line- do a search. It's not cheap, but IMO it's preferred over ascorbic acid. The brand I've got is Bronson. If I were buying it today, I'd just go to the Formulary.

Donald, I get my Ascorbic acid at our local mom & pop health food store here in Grangeville (no one else in the world knows where that is but you and I...well a few other folks). It's NOW Foods brand, labeled as 100% pure, and in the chem analysis says; Ascorbic acid, 100%. No other ingredients. It's labeled as powder, but looks exactly the same as other brands labeled as crystals. Even after it's been shipped to the middle of nowhere, the 8 oz bottle I bought last month cost only $7.65.

 

Now foods has a website. They could probably sell it and ship it cheaper than you are getting it, and it's pure.

Now foods website has a distributor search, you might be able to find a local source for them.

If I have purity problems with this 97% product, I'll look at NOW foods for certain -- and I prefer ascorbic acid over sodium ascorbate because I've got my formula and times already worked out for the acid version (I was originally dissolving tablets), and don't have to go back and start experimenting all over again.

 

However, I won't be buying more of this for a long time, unless it goes bad on the shelf from oxidation or the rose hips part causes trouble. It'll take me *years* to make a dent in this stuff, even if I regularly develop 35 mm and larger formats with it...

 

FWIW, the material itself is pure white crystalline granules like sugar, but dustier than common table sugar. I think it'll be fine.

Isoascorbic acid (AKA erythorbic acid) is a little cheaper and is available at www.chemistrystore.com. It's no good as a vitamin, but is just fine for developing. That is what XTOL has in it.

I goofed. My source for erythorbic (isoascorbic) acid was www.KICgroup.com .