Explain Functions of Ascorbic Acid?

Vitamin C is easily oxidized, and the majority of its functions in vivo rely on this property. It plays a key role in the body's synthesis of collagen and nor epinephrine by keeping the enzymes responsible for these processes in their active reduced form. Vitamin C may also play a role in detoxifying by products of respiration. Occasionally during respiration, O₂ is incompletely reduced to superoxide ion (O₂^-) instead of being reduced completely to its -2 oxidation state (as in H₂O). Normally an enzyme called superoxide dismutase converts O₂^- to H₂ O₂ and O₂ , but in the presence of Fe²⁺, the hydrogen peroxide may be converted into the highly-reactive hydroxyl radical (OH). The hydroxyl radical can initiate unwanted and deleterious chemistry within a cell when it removes a hydrogen atom (H) from an organic compound to form H₂O and a new, potentially more reactive free radical. Ascorbic acid can donate a hydrogen atom to a free radical, and thus stop these reactions from occurring. The role of ascorbic acid as an antioxidant, therefore, is of prime importance.