Make Liposomal Vitamin C in Your Kitchen.

Intro: Make Liposomal Vitamin C in Your Kitchen.

Regular vitamin C taken orally, is absorbed at 16% to 19%, the rest remains in the intestines and leaves as waste.

Liposomal Vitamin C, also taken orally, is powdered Vitamin C which has been encapsulated inside a liposome, this liposome acts as a transport layer and protects against the digestive juices.

The result is a massive increase in the bio-availability of the vitamin C at a cellular level, with a typical encapsulation rate of 50% to 75%.

I'll be using an ultrasonic cleaner to do the encapsulation, and a stick type blender to create a uniform mix.

STEP 1: The Tools

A standard stick type blender is used, although just about any kitchen blender will do, not much more to say except check the blades for sharpness. One of the blades in my blender had a very rounded blunt edge, easily rectified with a dremel tool.

My preferred stirring tool is a plastic chopstick, drinking straws are fine for stirring water, but when the mix starts thickening, they just aren't up to the task.

DON'T use a metal spoon, even if its stainless steel, scraping with a metal spoon in the metal bowl of the ultrasonic cleaner will create small metal particles in your mix which could then become encapsulated. It is doubtful that your cells are going to go "yippee, here's some 316L stainless steel, let’s make survival knives"... I suspect it will be harmful in the long term.

I use plastic containers for blending, because that's what was handy, but I store my mix in BPA free or glass bottles.

The Ultrasonic cleaner is the 9050 model and has 2 power settings, 30W and 50W with a 99 second timer, I only use the high power setting.

Due to the loudness of the buzzer which sounds at the end of every cycle and got very annoying, I dismantled the cleaner to see if it could be made quieter, also natural curiosity got the better of me and I had to have a look inside.

To my surprise, I discovered the heatsinks for the power transistors had no thermal paste or any other type of thermal coupling, instead a text NOTE in the instruction manual which reads, “A 2min rest is required after 5mins of continuous use, a 10min rest would be needed after operating it 5 times.”

I unscrewed the transistor from its heatsink, gently bent it forward and applied thermal paste with a toothpick to the back of the transistor before refastening.

I have used my cleaner for 20mins continuously since my thermal paste addition with no visible harm, I also pulled the cleaner apart to check the heatsinks and they were only warm to the touch. It is my opinion that the thermal paste addition will also extend the service life and reliability of the device.

STEP 2: Ingredients

The ingredients used are soya lecithin granules, ascorbic acid in a powder form for the vitamin c content and distilled water.

I use what's available locally, which sometimes seems to be only the necessities and not the full nice to have range, with that in mind, I use soya lecithin granules, but if it's available use the NON GMO product.

DON'T use liquid lecithin, it's not going to absorb anything.

I used ascorbic acid powder, in the form of calcium ascorbate, pure ascorbic acid, non buffered would be better, but highly recommended are any of the natural Vitamin C powders, i.e. Acerola cherry powder.

It is my understanding that ascorbic acid is a manmade synthetic, lacking in all the extra rutin, bioflavonoids, Factor K, Factor J, Factor P, Tyrosinase, Ascorbinogen's that occur in natural vitamin C.

I use distilled water bought at the pharmacy. I have recorded total dissolved solids at 3ppm, same as Reverse Osmosis water, using a TDS meter.

DON'T use ordinary tap/ filtered water, encapsulated chlorine and fluoride would be very undesirable.

STEP 3: The Process

1. Dissolve a heaped tablespoon (15g) of Vitamin C powder in 200ml distilled water.
2. Next, I add 2 heaped tablespoons of the lecithin granules to the vitamin C water mix. (1 heaped tablespoon (measured at 13.5g) per 100ml of distilled water.
3. Blend for about 2 min and pour the mix into the ultrasonic cleaner.
4. Run the ultrasonic mixing for 10min, "jello state" should be reached, for this size device with 300ml of liquid.
5. Blend a 2nd time for 2 min until mix is uniformly smooth.
6. Allow the mix to cool down for an hour in the fridge.
7. Blend the cool mix before pouring into the ultrasonic cleaner for another 10min run.
8. Add another 100ml distilled water into the mix and cool overnight in the fridge.
9. Add another heaped table spoon of lecithin to cooled mix and blend.
10. Pour the resulting 300ml with 3 tablespoons of lecithin mix into the ultrasonic cleaner and run for 10min, thereafter pour into a suitable container and store in the fridge.

To sum up, I use 3 spoons of lecithin (40.5g) to 1 spoon of Vitamin C (15g) in 300ml of water, but the mass ratio of lecithin to C is more like 2.7:1

My reasoning behind adding the distilled water to the mix and letting it stand overnight, is that the water will absorb any free Vitamin C from the mix which will then be encapsulated with the new spoon of lecithin the next morning.

Likewise I don't pre-soak the lecithin in the distilled water before adding vitamin C, it's going to absorb surrounding liquid anyway, why not make sure that surrounding liquid has been saturated with vitamin C beforehand.

Vitamin C supposedly degrades in temps above 32 degrees C, hence my short run-time in the ultrasonic device and the cooling down period in the fridge.

The photos used in this step weren't all from the same batch, the orange mix is the Vita-C 2000 and was used to better illustrate the jello state after the first 10min ultrasonic mixing cycle.

It's my experience that the Big Ceee calcium ascorbate doesn't mix as well as the Vita-C 2000, some experimentation might be required for other vitamin C powders.

*Update 11/08/2014*

I've had good success using Solgar brand L-Ascorbic Acid. I used 10g of vitamin C powder in 200ml of distilled water with 2 tablespoons (27g) of lecithin. The mix was ultrasonically mixed for 10min after the initial blending, the jello state was reached with final temp was between 29 and 30 degrees, after another blend cycle the mix was refrigerated overnight. Testing was done the next morning after another 10min ultrasonic mix, after waiting approx a minute for the 1/8th inch foam layer to develop.

STEP 4: Testing the Level of Encapsulation

This is known as the Brooks Bradley test after the individual who presented the procedure.

Basically this tests the level of ascorbic acid encapsulation by adding a reagent and measuring the subsequent reaction.

It is done as follows: In a 12oz (340ml) drinking glass or similar jar, pour 4oz (112ml) of your encapsulated mix.

Next mix a 1/4 level teaspoon of common household bicarbonate of soda (NOT baking powder) in 1oz of distilled water, then pour the soda bicarb gently into the encapsulated mix while gently stirring.

The resulting foam layer created by the soda bicarb reacting with the unencapsulated ascorbic acid portion of your mix is measured with an imperial ruler.

If the layer is 1/2 inch then encapsulation is about 50%

3/8 inch then encapsulation is about 60%

1/8 inch then encapsulation is about 75%

A buffered calcium ascorbate produces no foam reaction as can be seen in the photo, its very probable that sodium ascorbate would behave in a similar manner.

I used some Vita-C 2000 to test my method and measured a foam layer slightly bigger than 1/8 inch which I imagine to be about 70% encapsulation, as seen in the last photo in this step.

STEP 5: Some Parting Thoughts

My method is by no means the only way of going about it, but my experience has led to the process that I've used.

The end product is a rather unpleasant mix of sour and oily and so I add a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses after the ultrasonic mixing while the mix is still warm, this accounts for the light coffee color in the last photo.

Recommended dosage is a shot (1oz) first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and don't eat anything for 15mins thereafter.

Whether you stir continuously or gently or more vigorously is largely irrelevant, suffice to say that we're stirring to ensure a uniform mix. I stir frequently, 2 or 3 times every 99sec cycle, for what it's worth.

I shouldn't have to say so, but I will anyway... DON'T use the ultrasonic cleaner for this LET (liposomal encapsulation technology) process as the same one that you used to clean your carburetor/glasses/watch strap.

The best way to clean a new ultrasonic device, is to do a few cycles on the timer with a full load of distilled water, this will leach out any unpleasantries. On a whim I measured the TDS of a batch of distilled water after 2 x 99sec cycles, it was 5ppm as opposed to 3ppm from the bottle, i.e. very clean.

Exercise caution and do some research before running around encapsulating everything you cast your eye upon, the only other substance I've heard of being encapsulated is Glutathione, but it's not available locally and so I have no experience in that area.

Comments

[BalázsÁ3]

Can I make liposomal creatine monohydrate with this method?

[tgraham72]

I am trying to learn to make pine needle tea using an ultrasonic. It isn't easy to come across much information about using the ultrasonic for food/medicine. Thank you.

[dedwardf9]

Unfortunately this will not achieve true liposomal encapsulation - you need a homogenizer to achieve that. I would like to buy one but they are not cheap.

[ProfCC]

I would strongly recommend that a clean, secondary container be used in an ultrasonic bath. This ensures that your mixture stays clean and is particularly important for anything you are planning to consume.

To use a secondary container, fill the bath about half way with water, then place a clean container (such as a Pyrex bowl or mason jar) with the mixture you are processing into the water bath. The water level in the bath can be increased after you have placed your secondary container into the bath.

[terriwithaneye]

I read this on another recipe and worried now about using my ultrasonic jewelry cleaner which has a metal well Seems yours does too. Any thoughts?
"When the lecithin-ascorbic acid mix is poured directly into the steel well of the ultrasonic unit the ultrasonic vibrations will cause nanoparticles of metal to migrate into the liposomal vitamin C solution. Therefore it is better to use borosilicate glass as the receptacle to hold the lecithin-ascorbic acid solution. The ultrasonic waves pass from the metal bottom of the ultrasonic unit directly through the borosilicate glass flask and into the fluid. (For good reason, scientific laboratories use borosilicate glass, rather than metal for their research work.)
The ultrasonic cleaner machine needs to be of sufficient size – 2 litres to hold the 1 litre flat bottomed borosilicate flask. Small jewellery ultrasonic cleaners are not suitable for this purpose.

[petercd]

I hadnt thought of that.
I might use a 250ml beaker or Erlenmeyer in future, probably just pyrex, nothing fancy.

[annasinger7]

Hi Peter,
Have you tested the level of ascorbic acid encapsulation with and without the extra steps of adding the final 100ml of water to mixture and letting it sit in the fridge overnight (to absorb more C) and then adding more lecithin and running one more time in the US cleaner the next day? Does it make a big difference?

[petercd]

I thought it was worth the extra effort at the time, but I dont have any empirical evidence to present.

[annasinger7]

OK thanks Peter! I think I saw more recent posts of yours on another site. I can't use alcohol to help create liposomes due to a med I'm on right now (can't even smell it, bad timing given COVID19) but I've definitely got a better lipo C process now. Better than the old one from 5 years ago. Thank you!

[tommixoft]

I REALLY doubt it encapsulates anything. If it encapsulates the liquid should not be sour.

[naturealley]

Nice work! I have prepared letcithin vit C for years and always kept looking for improvements. Now I was looking for info to build a more efficient ultrasonic device and came across your instructable and I hope you do not mind my commenting.
Liposomes/multilamellar bodies form spontaneously from dry lecithin in water and if added to a vit C solution some of the vit C will get encapsulated. Using ultrasound breaks up larger capsule structures into smaller ones, making a.o. liposomes. Professional productions of lipo vit C use highly concentrated ultrasonic power combined with micro extrusion (pushing the sonicated mix through a narrow nozzle. Afterwards the solutions are concentrated and a thick paste is the result.

Ca-ascorbate is not recommended because the polar head groups of lecithin interact with Ca ions making the lipid layers rigid and therefore preventing the lecithin from forming liposomes. You already hinted at this and like you I would also advice to use Na-ascorbate (sodium salt). It is best prepared from ascorbic acid and sodium bicarbonate, the reason being that ascorbic acid powder has a much longer shelf life than sodium ascorbate. This is redox potential related.

I have always questioned and still question the %-ages of encapsulation that are being claimed by so many. Unless there is preference for vitamin c molecules to be inside liposomal structures (there is no evidence for that as far as I am aware), the efficiency of encapsulation will be equal to the liquid volume inside the liposomes divided by the total volume of the suspension. Based on that I honestly doubt the efficiency is higher than a few percent.

The Brooks Bradley test is not accurate (the author admits to that), and not based on a reference measurement of an ascorbic acid solution. Neither does the author of the test indicate what the claimed percentages are based on. Have they been measured with true and tested chemical essays?

I did not mean to sound negative, but especially in alternative medicine precaution has to be observed to not give established medicine (read the pharma industry) tools to denounce progress experienced by so many real people who are not in it for the money.... I really am very positive about lecithin vitamin C mixtures. I am convinced the mixture does a good job for our healths, and after all, a name is just a name... it doesn't matter much whether the vit C is taken up as liposomes or whether the improved uptake is based on some sort of association of vit C with lecithin.

[BikerBill789]

For anyone living in the UK, your can find a selection of ultrasonic cleaners here: www.bestultrasonic.co.uk

[Ironwave]

Wow man, you always mess with way awesome stuff.

This is great, I was looking for better absorb-able vita c's

Where do you find ultrasonic cleaners, is basically the same as a cold mist maker one often see in garden ponds?

[petercd]

Thanks, I have the time and freedom to dabble in areas of interest. :)

Nope, not the cold mist or humidifiers, its whats commonly referred to as jewelry or cell phone cleaners, at least 50 watts, so none of the battery ones used for denture cleaning.

I picked my 300ml 50W one up on www.bidorbuy.co.za with a search for ultrasonic cleaners.

[thescientistformerlyknownasNaegeli]

Super cool work - was thinking to incapsulate UVA and UVB filters to improve sun lotions.