The Reichstein process in chemistry is a combined chemical and microbial method for the production of ascorbic acid from D-glucose that takes place in several steps.
[1] This process was devised by Nobel Prize winner Tadeusz Reichstein and his colleagues in 1933 while working in the laboratory of the ETH in Zürich.
[chronology citation needed] The reaction steps are: The microbial oxidation of sorbitol to sorbose is important because it provides the correct stereochemistry.
[chronology citation needed] The first commercially sold vitamin C product was either Cebion from Merck or Redoxon from Hoffmann-La Roche.
[citation needed] Even today industrial methods for the production of ascorbic acid can be based on the Reichstein process.