No evidence of carcinogenicity for L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in rodents

Carcinogenesis studies of L-ascorbic acid were conducted by offering diets containing 0, 25,000 or 50,000 ppm L-ascorbic acid to groups of 50 F344/N rats and 50 B6C3F1 mice of each sex for 103 wk. Survival of dosed and control female rats and of dosed and control female mice were comparable. Survival of high-dose male rats was slightly greater than that of the controls, whereas survival of high-dose male mice was significantly greater than that of the controls. There was no observed differences in neoplasms between treated and control groups that were considered related to L-ascorbic acid. In female rats, several lesions usually seen in aged animals showed a dose-related decline. Under the conditions of these studies, L-ascorbic acid given at 2.5% or 5.0% in the diet for 103 wk was not toxic or carcinogenic for male and female F344/N rats or for male and female B6C3F1 mice.