How Do You Make “Homemade” Lipospheric Vitamin C
Making your own lipospheric Vitamin C is fairly simple, but requires some equipment, especially an ultrasonic cleaner. Such cleaners are used in dental offices, jewelry stores and in automotive repair. These are all used for cleaning items. In this application the cleaners are used to create small nanoparticles of lecithin around the vitamin C (or sodium ascorbate, the buffered form).
Making the lecithin/sodium ascorbate mixture:
- Pour 3 cups of distilled water in an ultrasonic cleaner (you can also put this in a blender if you do not have an immersion blender) & add 3 tablespoons of pure sodium ascorbate to dissolve by stirring vigorously
- Add 2 cups of non-GMO based lecithin in to the water in the ultrasonic cleaner (or in a blender) and immersion blend at for about 1 minute (We prefer sunflower lecithin, but soy and sunflower lecithin can be mixed in any ratio or can be just one type, but most feel the sunflower is the best taste and quality)
- Blend until very smooth with will take about 30-60 seconds.
Making the nanoparticles of Vitamin C (sodium ascorbate in lecithin microspheres):
- If a blender was used, transfer the mixture into the ultrasonic cleaner and sonicate without heat for 30-45 min, occasionally stirring (once every 1-2 min) with a wooden or plastic spatula or spoon (unless you have a professional unit that has a “sweep” and/or “degas” function, which stirs the mixture).
- At the end of sonication, you can add more lecithin (2-4 tablespoons) to thicken and re-blend with the immersion blender for 30-40 seconds before dispensing into glass bottles or jars to refrigerate (shelf life of about 2 weeks). Can be re-sonicated after that time if needed. This method get about a 70% encapsulation as compared to nearly 100% with the commercial brands.
A tablespoon of this should be a single dose (total of 0.85gm or about 500-700 mg encapsulated at a 60-80% efficiency). This dosing should allow about 3-4 doses a day with little risk of the un-encapsulated Vitamin C causing any loose bowel movements (usually starts at about 2 grams a day and this will have about 1-1.5 grams at the lower efficiency). This costs about 15 cents a dose.
We have used multiple ultrasonic cleaners. The Kendal was the first, then we got large all stainless one that is twice the price, but much less cleanup…however remember we are making enough for 7 people, so the Kendal would be fine for a single or couple situation. The Kendal has a plastic body, but the tank is all stainless steel. A key situation is that you do have to stir this stuff as it is being ultrasonically zapped, as this creates more nano-particles. Use a plastic of wooden spoon as a metal object will reduce the ultrasonic waves that you want to be maximized. Most recently we got a German made professional (Elma S30H) unit with a sweep and degas function. It is a stellar unit (we have had several stainless steel units die which cost about $200-300/each. The $140 one below is still working, but you have to sit and stir it. The Elma was cheapest at Walmart online for about $700.
