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.