Effect of flavonoids on vitamin C activity of D-isoascorbic acid.

Large peroral doses of D-isoascorbic acid, a vitamin C stereoisomer (50 mg per animal per day), were retained in the guinea-pig organism to a smaller extent than the same doses of L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Simultaneous administration of the flavonoids rutin and epicatechin increased the amount of D-isoascorbic acid retained in the liver, brain and wall of the small intestine by up to 100%, but four weeks after its extraction from the food the amount of L-ascorbic acid left in the guinea-pig organism still exceeded D-isoascorbic acid reserves. This difference, which was found in all the organs studied, was the largest in the groups simultaneously given flavonoids. In guinea-pigs which, like man, are dependent on an exogenous vitamin C supply, D-isoascorbic acid was metabolized at a manifestly higher rate than L-ascorbic acid, irrespective of whether flavonoids were administered or not. In liver, brain and small intestine wall homogenates, the oxidized forms of both stereoisomers were reduced in the presence of reduced glutathione, but the reduction rate of D-isodehydroascorbic acid was higher and it was stimulated by the two flavonoids more strongly than the reduction of L-dehydroascorbic acid. The stuterospecific.