What is another name for vitamin C?

Another name for vitamin C is ascorbic acid. The name refers to the water-soluble vitamin found in many fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits, peppers, broccoli, and kiwifruit.

“Ascorbic” comes from the Latin scorbutus, meaning scurvy—the disease caused by severe vitamin C deficiency. Vitamin C is needed for collagen production, wound healing, connective tissue, and normal immune function. Humans cannot make it internally, so it must come from food or supplements.

Scientists identified vitamin C’s role in preventing scurvy through research on sailors and other groups with restricted diets. Albert Szent-Györgyi isolated the compound in the late 1920s and received the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for related discoveries.

A common mix-up is treating vitamin C and ascorbic acid as different substances. In ordinary nutrition and quiz contexts, they are the same vitamin; “ascorbic acid” is its chemical name.