The anti-oxidant activity of acyl ascorbates, with acyl chain lengths of 10 to 18, was measured in an intestinal epithelial cell line. All the acyl ascorbates exhibited the activity for the oxidization induced by three different types of oxidants, at levels higher than ascorbic acid. Myristoyl ascorbate was the most effective and showed activity at 3 x 10(-12) to 3 x 10(-6) M. Incubation with myristoyl ascorbate for more than 3 h was needed to sufficiently suppress the oxidization of the intestinal cell monolayers.