Make your own Vitamine C tablets

Vitamine C tablets

Here is a simple recipe with ingredients available at your local pharmacy or chemist. It serves to produce a supply of an effervescent Vitamine C powder which you can dissolve in about 20 ml of water and fill the glass up with fruit juice for an agreeable drink. Do not neutralize Ascorbic Acid more than to about 90 - 95%.

Enter your choices:

Vitamine C per tablet: gram (e.g. 2)
Degree of Neutralization percent (best: 92)
Calcium per tablet: gram (e.g. 0.15)
Number of tablets to make:   (e.g. 250)


gram of Ascorbic Acid Ph.Eur.II
gram of Sodiumhydrogencarbonate Ph.Eur.II
gram of Calciumcarbonate (precipitated) Ph.Eur.II

Market prices (2010):   Total cost of batch  SFr
Cost per 10 tablets SFr
of 1 tablet of your recipe in
50 ml of water (CO2 dissolved)

Buy these substances in unopened original containers. Do not let your pharmacist weigh out portions from already opened bottles! This is especially important for Sodiumhydrogencarbonate and Ascorbic Acid.
At home in your kitchen open the three powder flasks one after the other and weigh out the computed amounts separately. Close each flask again tightly. If you make a batch using 250 g Ascorbic Acid or more the precision of 1-2 g of a kitchen balance is sufficient for all components.

Mix the Ascorbic Acid powder thoroughly with the fine powder of Calciumcarbonate using a spoon, then add the Sodiumhydrogencarbonate and mix again (with an electric kitchen mixer, if available). Be careful to use dry equipment and containers. Fill the mixture into (several) at most 250 g size dry, soft, plastic powder flasks with a tight screw cap. Open only to withdraw your dayly ration. Commercial (real) tablets come in one to two gram Vitamine C portions. That corresponds to a tea spoon of your powder.
Do not make batches of more than, say, 0.5 kg of Vitamin C. Although the powder keeps well in closed flasks, in a flask opened for dayly takeout the powder develops a slight yellowish tint in the course of several weeks. This is caused by moisture and oxygen and is harmless. Excessive moisture can lead to the powder "baking" together and forming lumps. In order to prevent this, use the contents of an opened flask within about 1 month. The powder must not be brought into contact with water prior to its consumption. Vitamine C tablets are sold in well closed tubes with a drying agent in the cap!

Commercial effervescent Vitamine C tablets have a similar composition. But they usually contain lots of sugar and citric acid in addition to a much larger portion of Sodiumhydrogencarbonate. For your health the above recipe is better! Several of my friends and myself take 1 to 3 gram portions of this every day since more than 10 years. The trick is to neutralize Ascorbic Acid to only about 92% which yields a slightly acid solution around pH = 5 with an agreeable taste. Many popular fruit juices have a similar pH (a good table wine has pH = 3.5). If a large amount of Calcium is used, the solution has a bitter taste. So, you probably like it better if you take only 0.1 to 0.15 g Ca per 2 g tablet than the maximum value 0.209 g (with 92% neutralization).

If you consider these advices you will be satisfied with the recipe. However, I disclaim any responsibility for failed preparations and loss of materials and concomitant mishaps from faulty handling. If you feel unsure about producing such a recipe, let it be prepared at your pharmacist (print this recipe and the above hints for him or her because I have seen unusable (humid to wet) preparations being made by professional pharmacists!) or rather buy (less healthy but five to ten times more expensive) Vitamin C tablets.

This is an application of the ChemEdu-Package, chapter "Solution Chemistry". This little program in javascript which you can look at with /View/sourcecode is identical to nascorb.bas. More information in: