We present a disposable optical sensor for Ascorbic Acid (AA). It uses a polyaniline based electrochromic sensing film that undergoes a color change when exposed to solutions of ascorbic acid at pH 3.0. The color is monitored by a conventional digital camera working with the hue (H) color coordinate. The electrochromic film was deposited on an Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) electrode by cyclic voltammetry and then characterized by atomic force microscopy, electrochemical and spectroscopic techniques. An estimation of the initial rate of H, as Delta H/Delta t, is used as the analytical parameter and resulted in the following logarithmic relationship: Delta H/Delta t = 0.029 log[AA] + 0.14, with a limit of detection of 17 mu M The relative standard deviation when using the same membrane 5 times was 7.4% for the blank, and 2.6% (for n = 3) on exposure to ascorbic acid in 160 mu M concentration. The sensor is disposable and its applicability to pharmaceutical analysis was demonstrated. This configuration can be extended for future handheld configurations. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.