Vitamin C participates in several physiological processes, among others, immune 
stimulation, synthesis of collagen, hormones, neurotransmitters, and iron 
absorption. Severe deficiency leads to scurvy, whereas a limited vitamin C 
intake causes general symptoms, such as increased susceptibility to infections, 
fatigue, insomnia, and weight loss. Surprisingly vitamin C deficiencies are 
spread in both developing and developed countries, with the latter actually 
trying to overcome this lack through dietary supplements and food fortification. 
Therefore new strategies aimed to increase vitamin C in food plants would be of 
interest to improve human health. Interestingly, plants are not only living 
bioreactors for vitamin C production in optimal growing conditions, but also 
they can increase their vitamin C content as consequence of stress conditions. 
An overview of the different approaches aimed at increasing vitamin C level in 
plant food is given. They include genotype selection by "classical" breeding, 
bio-engineering and changes of the agronomic conditions, on the basis of the 
emerging concepts that plant can enhance vitamin C synthesis as part of defense 
responses.