Erythorbic acid content in tissues of guinea pigs administered erythorbic acid.

The erythorbic acid (ErA) content in the tissues of guinea pigs administered ErA was compared with that of ascorbic acid (AsA). Guinea pigs were administered 1, 5, 20, and 100 mg ErA/day or 1, 5, and 100 mg AsA/day for 16 days and then sacrificed. The liver, adrenal glands, spleen, and kidneys were removed to determine the contents of ErA and AsA using HPLC. Only a small amount of ErA was found in four tissues of the animals administered 20 mg or more of ErA/day. On the contrary, AsA was found in the tissues of all animals administered 1 mg or more of AsA/day. The ErA content in the tissues was much lower than that of AsA even when the amount of ErA administered was the same as that of AsA. However, the body weight gains of animals administered ErA were similar to those of animals administered AsA. These observations suggested that the mechanism of the retention of ErA in the tissues was much different from that of AsA and that the vitamin C activity of ErA might be more than one-twentieth that of AsA.