ldsfireguy
It is a little confusing: ascorbic acid is Vit C, not
citric acid .
citric acid :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citric_acid
"
citric acid is a weak organic acid found in citrus fruits. It is a natural preservative and is also used to add an acidic (sour) taste to foods and soft drinks. In biochemistry, it is important as an intermediate in the citric acid cycle and therefore occurs in the metabolism of almost all living things. It also serves as an environmentally benign cleaning agent and acts as an antioxidant.
Citric acid exists in a variety of fruits and vegetables, but it is most concentrated in lemons and limes, where it can comprise as much as 8% of the dry weight of the fruit."
Ascorbic Acid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascorbic_acid
"Ascorbic acid is an organic acid with antioxidant properties."
"The L-enantiomer of ascorbic acid is also known as vitamin C. The name "ascorbic" comes from its property of preventing and curing scurvy. Primates, including humans, and a few other species in all divisions of the animal kingdom, notably the guinea pig, have lost the ability to synthesize ascorbic acid and must obtain it in their food."
"Ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by being itself available for energetically favourable oxidation. Many oxidants (typically, reactive oxygen species) such as the hydroxyl radical (formed from hydrogen peroxide), contain an unpaired electron and thus are highly reactive and damaging to humans and plants at the molecular level. This is due to their interaction with nucleic acid, proteins and lipids. Reactive oxygen species oxidize (take electrons from) ascorbate first to monodehydroascorbate and then dehydroascorbate. The reactive oxygen species are reduced to water while the oxidized forms of ascorbate are relatively stable and unreactive, and do not cause cellular damage."