Table 2.

Comparison of HPLC methods for total plasma vitamin C analysis

	ECa	Other UV methodsb	Present UV method
Equipment
Availability	Limited	Wide	Wide
Cost	High	Moderate	Moderate
Maintenance	Complex, lengthy	Simple	Simple
Separation column	Dedicated ion-pairing	Reverse phase or ion-pairing	Reverse phase
Number of reagents	14	3-6	4
Reagent preparation time (h)	4	1.5	1
Number of proceduresc	7	4-6	4
Number of pH adjustments	3	0-2	0
Time prior to sample injection (h)d	4-5	2-3	2
Chromatographic run time (min)	8	2-16	6
pH
Mobile phase	4.8	4.5-5.7	2.7
Low pH throughout procedure	No	No	Yes

^aAs described in the Methods section

^bAs described in [59, 63, 64]

^cPreparation of reagents and mobile phase, pH adjustments and sample handling

^dPreparation of mobile phase, system equilibration, reduction reaction and standards and control analysis