:: I want to further stress how confusing the first paragraph of this article is to someone who is unfamiliar with the relationship between "Vitamin C" and its vitamer compound "ascorbate". The writer immediately goes into a frenzy talking about properties of the compound before ever even making mention of the vitamin other than that it is essential for humans. Lets establish why ascorbate is a vitamer compound of Vitamin C before talking about ascorbate or ascorbic acid.