Comparative bioassay of ascorbate in three different sources viz., synthetic, ascorbate in crude amla extract and ascorbate purified from the amla fruit, were conducted on commercial traits of two popular silkworm hybrids viz., CSR2 x CSR4 and PM x CSR2. It was interesting to note that ascorbate-quantified crude amla extract induced significant improvement in economic traits at 10 times lower ascorbate doses (0.05% & 0.3%) as compared to synthetic ascorbate (0.5% & 3.0%) in both the hybrids. It is surmised that the improvement in silkworm at considerably lower doses (0.05% & 0.3%) can possibly be due to synergetic activity of ascorbate with other compounds in the vitamin C-complex that increase its bioavailability and efficacy. Further, no difference was observed in the efficacies exhibited by purified ascorbate from that of synthetic ascorbate.