Liposomal vitamin C: is it better absorbed?

What is liposomal vitamin C?

Liposomal vitamin C is vitamin C, as ascorbic acid or a salt such as sodium ascorbate, enclosed in liposomes: microscopic hollow spheres made of phospholipids, the type of fat that forms cell membranes. The products tested in published studies used phospholipids from sunflower lecithin, soybean phosphatidylcholine or rapeseed lecithin, and liposomes range from about 20 nanometres to over a micrometre across. It's sold as liquids, capsules and powders.

Why wrap vitamin C at all?

The gut takes up plain vitamin C through a transporter that can only handle so much. Plain vitamin C crosses the gut wall through a sodium-dependent transporter called SVCT1, and the body keeps blood levels within a tight range. In US hospital studies, a single 200 mg dose was completely absorbed, but from 500 mg upwards absorption fell and the extra was passed in urine. In healthy young women, blood levels stopped rising at about 400 mg a day.

Liposomes are thought to be taken up by other routes, such as cells engulfing them whole (endocytosis), so in theory more vitamin C could get through.

Is liposomal vitamin C better absorbed than regular vitamin C?

In short blood tests, usually yes, but by very different amounts, and the studies are small. In 2025 Anitra Carr, a vitamin C researcher at the University of Otago in New Zealand, reviewed every published human study that compared liposomal with plain vitamin C. She found 10, published between 2016 and 2024. Her review had no specific funding and she declared no conflicts of interest.

The figures are areas under the curve, a measure of the total vitamin C in the blood over the test period, taken from Carr's review. Every study measured blood levels for 4 to 24 hours after a dose.

All 10 studies had industry funding or authors employed by companies, Carr reported. Two examples: Davis 2016 was funded by Empirical Labs, which supplied the liposomes, and one author owned a company selling liposomal vitamin C. Purpura 2024 was funded by Specnova, the company behind the LipoVantage ingredient it tested.

Why is the evidence still thin?

A higher blood level for a few hours doesn't show that your body keeps more vitamin C. Carr's review sets out what's missing:

• No study measured vitamin C in urine, so it's unknown whether the extra is kept or simply passed out.
• Only two measured vitamin C inside white blood cells. In the larger one, Purpura 2024, the total was 1.1 times that of plain vitamin C.
• The biggest gaps came from studies whose volunteers started with very low blood vitamin C. Carr suggests that when levels are low, tissues pull plain vitamin C out of the blood quickly, so its blood peak looks small. The gap may then reflect where the vitamin C went rather than how much was absorbed. Some very low starting values may also reflect how samples were stored.
• Where volunteers started with normal levels, around 50 µmol/L, liposomal vitamin C gave only 1.3 to 1.4 times the total.
• Doses ran from 150 mg to 10 g, the formulations all differed, and blood was taken for different lengths of time, so the results can't be pooled.

Does liposomal vitamin C do anything ordinary vitamin C doesn't?

No study has shown that it does. Only two looked for an effect. In Davis 2016, liposomal and plain vitamin C gave the same protection against a marker of oxidative damage after blood flow to the forearm was briefly cut off. In McGarry 2024, liposomal vitamin C gave about 5% more antioxidant capacity in serum at two hours, but no extra protection for cells or DNA. Carr judged that small differences like these are of uncertain and probably minimal clinical importance.

In Great Britain the authorised claims belong to vitamin C in any form, as long as the product is at least a source of it. Vitamin C contributes to the normal function of the immune system, for example. No authorised claim says a liposomal form works better. Carr also notes that healthy people with adequate vitamin C don't need extra, because the excess is readily excreted, and the NHS says you should be able to get the 40 mg a day you need from your diet. Our guide to how much vitamin C you need covers the amounts.

Intravenous vitamin C, given in clinical settings, reaches far higher blood levels than either oral form, liposomal included.

Who should not take liposomal vitamin C?

The same people who should be careful with any vitamin C supplement:

• People with haemochromatosis. The NHS says they should avoid iron and vitamin C supplements, because vitamin C increases iron absorption, and the UK Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals also named thalassaemia.
• Anyone who has had kidney stones. Large observational studies linked vitamin C supplements of 1,000 mg a day or more with kidney stones in men, so talk to your GP before taking high doses.
• Anyone already taking other vitamin C. The NHS says less than 1,000 mg a day from supplements is unlikely to cause harm and more can cause stomach pain, diarrhoea and wind, so count every product with added vitamin C.
• People with a soya allergy. Some liposomal products are made with soya phospholipids, so check the label.

If you're pregnant, breastfeeding or take prescribed medicines, ask a pharmacist before starting any high-dose supplement.

Where Natura fits

Natura doesn't sell a liposomal vitamin C. Daily Vitamin C, in the Natura cabinet (coming soon), is 1,000 mg of vitamin C as ascorbic acid, one tablet with a meal, listed with the daily bottles. That's exactly the NHS line, so don't take it with any other vitamin C supplement. Vitamin C contributes to the normal function of the immune system.