$ for i in c,3 e,5; do IFS=","; set -- $i; echo $1 and $2; done
c and 3
e and 5
About this use of set (from man builtins):
Any arguments remaining after option processing are treated as values
for the positional parameters and are assigned, in order, to $1, $2,
… $n
The IFS="," sets the field separator so every $i gets segmented into $1 and $2 correctly.
Via this blog.
Edit: more correct version, as suggested by @SLACEDIAMOND:
$ OLDIFS=$IFS; IFS=','; for i in c,3 e,5; do set -- $i; echo $1 and $2; done; IFS=$OLDIFS
c and 3
e and 5