Irresistible "Potions": Orange Juice? Berries?

Orange juice.... hmm... What do you thought of when I mention orange juice?
The first thing come to our mind is orange contains high concentration of vitamin C.
So does berries, such as blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and etc.

When we're young, parents often give us vitamin c tablets or multi-vitamin tablets. have you ever wondered what are these vitamins? And what is their function in our body?
well here is a brief information about vitamin c a.k.a. ascorbic acid.

Vitamin C, formal chemical name L-ascorbic acid, is an odourless, stable, white solid, soluble in water, slightly soluble in ethanol, and insoluble in organic solvents. Ascorbic acid can be synthesized from glucose or galactose in a wide variety of plants and in most animal species. The exceptions to this rule are humans and other primates, guineapigs, fruit-eating bats and many fish because they lack the final enzyme, L-gulonolactone to L-ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is readily oxidized in the body to dehydroascorbic acid, which in turn can be reduced back to ascorbic acid. This ability to participate in oxidation-reduction reactions is the basis for most of the known functions of the vitamin.

The best-defined function of vitamin C is its role in the synthesis of collagen, the principal connective tissue protein found in tendons, arteries, bone, skin and muscle.
Considerable attention has recently been focused on the antioxidant function of vitamin C. The water-soluble nature of vitamin C permits it to act as an efficient antioxidant against a wide range of intra and extracellular free radicals.

Fruits and vegetables are the major sources of vitamin C in the diet, contributing together up to 90% of the vitamin intake in countries like New Zealand and the UK. Fruit juices and drinks fortified with vitamin C are the most significant source in some groups, such as adolescents.
Vitamin C is not stored for too long in the body. When a vitamin C-free diet is consumed, approximately 3% of the total body pool is lost per day, although this proportion decreases considerably with duration of the diet. In the range of usual intake, almost half of the urinary metabolites of vitamin C appear as oxalic acid. When vitamin C intake greatly exceeds physiological requirement, there is some increase in oxalate excretion but most of the vitamin is excreted as un-metabolized vitamin C.