Vitamin E-rich foods

Vitamin E is an essential nutrient that serves as a powerful antioxidant, safeguarding cells from oxidative stress caused by free radicals. This protective role is vital in reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders. Beyond its antioxidant properties, vitamin E is integral to immune function, helping the body combat infections and maintain resilience. Its benefits extend to skin health, where it aids in reducing inflammation, enhancing moisture retention, and promoting wound healing, making it a staple in skincare products. This nutrient also contributes to overall well-being by supporting healthy vision and balancing hormonal functions.

A balanced diet offers numerous sources of vitamin E, ensuring that this vital nutrient can be easily included in daily meals. Nuts and seeds are among the richest sources. Almonds, sunflower seeds, and hazelnuts are particularly high in vitamin E, with just a small serving meeting a significant percentage of the daily requirement. For example, one ounce of almonds provides about 7.3 milligrams of vitamin E, nearly 50% of the recommended daily intake for adults. Incorporating these as snacks or toppings for dishes is a simple and effective way to boost vitamin E levels.

Vegetable oils are another excellent source of vitamin E. Sunflower oil, safflower oil, and wheat germ oil are particularly rich in this nutrient. A single tablespoon of wheat germ oil contains approximately 20 milligrams of vitamin E, exceeding the daily recommended intake. These oils can be used in cooking, baking, or as salad dressings, offering a versatile means of enhancing dietary intake.

Green leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, and Swiss chard also provide vitamin E. These vegetables are not only nutrient-dense but also contribute to overall health with their high levels of vitamins A, C, and K. Regular consumption of these greens—whether in salads, smoothies, or sautéed dishes—ensures a steady intake of vitamin E.

Avocados are another valuable source, offering approximately 2 milligrams of vitamin E per fruit. Their creamy texture and versatile flavor make them easy to incorporate into meals such as salads, sandwiches, and smoothies. Additionally, fortified foods like cereals and plant-based milk often contain added vitamin E, making them convenient options for meeting dietary needs.

By embracing a diverse range of vitamin E-rich foods, individuals can harness the full spectrum of benefits this nutrient offers. From protecting cellular health to supporting immunity and skin vitality, vitamin E is a cornerstone of a balanced and healthful diet.
Vitamin E-rich foods

Vitamin E: Essential Antioxidant and Immune-Boosting Nutrient for Health Protection

Vitamin E is a group of fat-soluble compounds known for their potent antioxidant properties, which play a crucial role in protecting the body against oxidative stress. Structurally, Vitamin E is composed of a chromanol ring and a hydrophobic side chain that facilitates its integration into cell membranes, allowing it to interact directly with lipid structures vulnerable to oxidation. Vitamin E exists in eight distinct forms, divided into two categories: tocopherols and tocotrienols. Each category includes alpha, beta, gamma, and delta forms, differentiated by the methyl group arrangements on their chromanol rings. This structural variation impacts their bioavailability and functional properties within the body.

Among these, alpha-tocopherol is the most biologically active and predominant form in human tissues, due to its efficient absorption and specific binding proteins that retain it in the bloodstream. Alpha-tocopherol functions as a powerful antioxidant, neutralizing free radicals and preventing oxidative damage to lipids, proteins, and DNA. This process reduces cellular damage and has been linked to lower risks of chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s. Recent research also suggests that gamma-tocopherol, abundant in certain oils and nuts, may play a complementary role in anti-inflammatory and cell signaling pathways, providing additional protective benefits.

Beyond its antioxidant capacity, Vitamin E exhibits significant anti-inflammatory properties, which further aid in preventing chronic diseases. By reducing inflammation, Vitamin E can help mitigate risks associated with conditions like atherosclerosis and arthritis. Moreover, Vitamin E supports immune function by enhancing the activity of immune cells, particularly T-cells, and promoting antibody production, which strengthens the body's defense against infections.

Vitamin E also contributes to skin health, offering protection against ultraviolet (UV) damage, maintaining skin integrity, and promoting wound healing. It is widely used in dermatology and cosmetic formulations due to its ability to neutralize oxidative damage in the skin, reduce scars, and delay signs of aging.

In summary, Vitamin E is an essential nutrient with a unique structure that enables antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune-enhancing properties. Its role in cellular protection and maintenance of overall health underscores the importance of including adequate sources of Vitamin E, such as nuts, seeds, and vegetable oils, in a balanced diet.
Vitamin E: Essential Antioxidant and Immune-Boosting Nutrient for Health Protection

Health Benefits and Risks of Palm Oil: A Nutrient-Rich Source of Vitamin E and Beta-Carotene

Palm oil, derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree, is a rich source of essential nutrients, particularly vitamin E and beta-carotene, which offer significant health benefits. Vitamin E in palm oil comes in two forms: tocopherols and tocotrienols. Both are potent antioxidants, which means they help neutralize free radicals—unstable molecules that can cause oxidative stress in the body. Prolonged oxidative stress has been linked to the development of chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's. The antioxidant properties of tocopherols and tocotrienols play a crucial role in protecting cells from this damage, making palm oil an important dietary component for disease prevention.

Red palm oil, the unrefined version of palm oil, is particularly rich in these antioxidants. Just 10ml of red palm oil can provide approximately 20% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin E, which contributes to several critical functions. This includes maintaining healthy skin by protecting it from harmful environmental factors such as UV radiation. Vitamin E also supports a healthy immune system by aiding in the production of immune cells that fight off infections, and it is believed to slow the progression of age-related macular degeneration, a common cause of vision loss in older adults.

In addition to vitamin E, palm oil contains a significant amount of beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A. Vitamin A is essential for maintaining healthy vision, supporting the immune system, and promoting skin health. In developing countries, where vitamin A deficiency is a common issue leading to conditions like blindness and increased susceptibility to infections, red palm oil is used as a dietary supplement to address these deficiencies. Its high beta-carotene content makes it a powerful tool in combating malnutrition.

However, despite these benefits, palm oil is high in saturated fats, which, when consumed in excess, can elevate cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease. Therefore, while its nutritional content is beneficial, it is essential to consume palm oil in moderation to avoid potential health risks associated with high fat intake.
Health Benefits and Risks of Palm Oil: A Nutrient-Rich Source of Vitamin E and Beta-Carotene

Vitamin E Heart Benefits

Vitamin E, a fat-soluble nutrient found in a variety of foods, acts within the body as an antioxidant, shielding cells from harm brought on by free radicals. These free radicals are byproducts produced when the body converts consumed food into energy. Over eight decades ago, Vitamin E was recognized as an essential micronutrient crucial for rat reproduction.

Consisting of eight lipid-soluble compounds, Vitamin E is composed of four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Its primary sources are nuts and a range of vegetable oils. γ-Tocopherol holds sway over Vitamin E levels in Western diets, while α-tocopherol prevails in the bloodstream, exhibiting the highest biological activity.

Many proponents suggest that Vitamin E, acting as an antioxidant, might have the potential to alleviate diseases tied to oxidative stress. Both research endeavors and clinical observations highlight its favorable influence on cardiovascular health. This reputation as a guardian of heart health has been cultivated over an extended period.

Cardiovascular disease, encompassing conditions like coronary artery disease, hypertensive heart disease, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, and atherosclerosis, which includes strokes, stands as the leading cause of death in the United States.

Meticulous investigations have unveiled plausible mechanisms by which Vitamin E could bestow cardiovascular benefits, notably by curbing the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the bloodstream.

The notion is put forth that antioxidant nutrients, including Vitamin E, may potentially decelerate the advancement of atherosclerosis. Observational studies involving groups of individuals have suggested that Vitamin E supplementation might assist in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Additionally, experimental evidence demonstrates that incorporating dietary Vitamin E can mitigate the progression of spontaneous atherosclerosis in nutritional models replicating cardiovascular disease.
Vitamin E Heart Benefits

Biological functions of vitamin E

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin with several forms, but alpha-tocopherol is the only one used by the human body. Since its discovery, vitamin E has been extensively researched by many scientists in an attempt to fully understand its role in a variety of diseases.

Vitamin E is most widely recognized for its antioxidant function that terminates the self-perpetuating cycle of lipid peroxidation. This means it protects body tissue from damage caused by substances called free radicals. Free radicals can harm cells, tissues, and organs. They are believed to play a role in certain conditions related to aging.

Tocopherols act as antioxidants by breaking free-radical chain reactions. Vitamin C helps to regenerate the active form of vitamin E. Vitamin E deficiency can result in erythrocyte fragility, muscular degeneration, steatitis, retinopathy, and reproductive failure. Vitamin E excess appears to be non-toxic.

Vitamin E also enhances immune function and prevents clots from forming in heart arteries. Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) has been shown to prevent oxidation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in vascular (endothelial) cells, nucleotides of DNA and RNA and cell membrane lipids.

Vitamin E came to public attention in the 1980s when scientists began to understand that free radical damage was involved in the early stages of artery-clogging atherosclerosis, and might also contribute to cancer, vision loss, and a host of other chronic conditions.

Vitamin E is only a minor component of the cell membrane; however, it may play a significant structural role in the plasma membrane. Vitamin E is a lipophilic molecule that partitions into hydrophobic portions of the bilayer. Once attached, the vitamin’s mobility within the membrane is impaired, and this is thought to stabilize the membrane.

Vegetable oils, such as wheat germ, sunflower, corn germ, soybean, and rapeseed, are the primary dietary source of vitamin E for humans.
Biological functions of vitamin E

Vitamin E as antioxidant

Many researches have reported that banana is rich in many bioactive compounds. This compound including vitamin E the major lipid-soluble component in the cell antioxidant defense system and is exclusively obtained from the diet.

Vitamin E has numerous important roles within the body because of its antioxidant activity and well recognized for their effective inhibition of lipid peroxidation in foods and living cells.

Vitamin E consists of four tocopherols (α-, β-, γ-, and ẟ-T) and the corresponding tocotrienols (α-, β-, γ- and ẟ-T3), which contain unsaturated side chains. RRR-a-T is the most biologically active form.

Tocopherols are widely distributed throughout the plant kingdom, α-tocopherol is the most widespread, being found essentially in the chloroplast. Other tocopherols are located outside the chloroplast.

The lipophilic extract of ripe banana pulp from several cultivars of the M. acuminata and M. balbisiana species has been found to be a source of α-tocopherol, thus offering well established nutritional and health benefits.

The biological activity of the tocopherols varies greatly and this variation is only partly correlated with the antioxidant action.
Vitamin E as antioxidant

Signs and symptoms of Vitamin E deficiency

Vitamin E deficiency is extremely rare in humans as it is unlikely caused by a diet consisting of low vitamin E. Vitamin E deficiency occurs only as a result of genetic abnormalities in α–tocopherol transfer protein, as a result of various fat malabsorption syndromes, or as a result of protein-energy malnutrition.

Vitamin E deficiency signs include ataxia, retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, skeletal myopathy, and immune response impairment. Crohn’s disease and cystic fibrosis patients require water-soluble vitamin E due to their inability to secrete bile.

The primary human vitamin E deficiency symptom is a peripheral neuropathy characterized by the degeneration of the large-caliber axons in the sensory neurons.

Vitamin E deficiency also causes ataxia and vitamin E deficiency (AVED), an inherited disorder, where the liver’s α-tocopherol transfer protein (α-TTP) is defective or absent. The lack of functional a-TTP results in the rapid depletion of plasma a-tocopherol, thereby demonstrating that a-TTP is needed to maintain plasma a-tocopherol concentrations. AVED patients suffer from nerve damage and lose the ability to walk.

As the vitamin E deficiency continues over time, the neurologic defects become so severe such that they that result in ataxia. Other symptoms include increased erythrocyte fragility, and increased ethane and pentane production.
Signs and symptoms of Vitamin E deficiency

What are the main functions of vitamin E?

Vitamin E consists of two families of compounds, the tocopherols and tocotrienols, characterized by a 6-chromanol ring and an isoprenoid side chain. Vitamin E is the major lipid-soluble component in the cell antioxidant defense system and is exclusively obtained from the diet.

Almost all foods contain some vitamin E, although corn oil, cottonseed oil, margarine, and peanut oil are especially good sources of this vitamin. Vitamin E supplements are quite popular and contribute considerably to vitamin E. Either natural or synthetic forms of α-tocopherol are used as supplements.

*Vitamin E’s major function appears to be a potent chain-breaking antioxidant that inhibits the production of reactive oxygen species molecules when fat undergoes oxidation and during the propagation of free radical reactions. The vitamin is a peroxyl radical scavenger and especially protects polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) within membrane phospholipids and in plasma lipoproteins.

*In 2007, reports from the Women’s Health Study (WHS) demonstrated that vitamin E supplements decrease the risk of mortality from thromboembolism and that alpha-tocopherol decreases the tendency for clotting in normal healthy women.

*Vitamin E also regulates the opening of blood vessels, important for unhindered blood flow.

*Vitamin E increases the orderliness of the membrane lipid packaging, thus allowing for a tighter packing of the membrane and, in turn, greater stability to the cell. Study in 2011 showed that vitamin E is necessary for maintaining proper skeletal muscle homeostasis and that the supplementation of cultured myocytes with alpha-tocopherol promotes plasma membrane repair.

*Vitamin E inhibits damaging blood clotting, potentially blocking blood flow. Vitamin E helps to prevent arteries from clogging by blocking the conversion of cholesterol into the waxy fat deposits called ‘plaque’ that stick to blood vessel walls. Vitamin E also thins the blood, allowing it to flow more easily through arteries even when plaque is present.

*Vitamin E involves in prevention of diseases including neurological disorders, cardiovascular diseases, age-related eye and skin damage, and infertility,

Vitamin E may help protect against clouding of the lens of the eye (cataracts) and a progressive deterioration in the retina, the back part of the eye (age related macular degeneration, AMD). Both of these eye disorders tend to occur as people age, leading to impaired vision.

*Vitamin E function as a physiological regulator of enzyme activity, cellular signaling, cell proliferation, and gene expression, which is not directly related to antioxidant action,
What are the main functions of vitamin E?

Fat soluble vitamin: Vitamin E

Vitamins are divided into two groups: water-soluble (B-complex vitamins and C vitamins) and fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K).

Vitamin E, of which there are four different forms (the tocopherol), is fat soluble. The tocopherols have the same name except with the prefix α-, β-, γ-, and ẟ- (the first four letters of the Greek alphabet).

The four compounds are closely related, with some difference in the molecular weight and in the position and number of certain molecular constituents.

Vitamin E is the most powerful natural antioxidant and protecting vitamins A and C, red blood cells, and essential fatty acids from destruction.

Vitamin E is a known biological antioxidant able to quench the lipid peroxidation chain. Vitamin E activity is measured by activity of α-tocopherol equivalents, while β-tocopherol has lower activity.

About 60 percent of vitamin E in the diet comes from vegetable oil (soybean, corn, wheat germ, cottonseed, and safflower). This also includes products made with vegetable oil (margarine and salad dressing).
Fat soluble vitamin: Vitamin E

Mechanism of vitamin E as antioxidant

Antioxidants such as vitamin E act to protect body cells against the effects of free radicals, which are potentially damaging by-products of the body's metabolism. Vitamin E serves as one of the body’s chief defenses against damage by free radicals.

Vitamin E occurs in nature in at least eight different isoforms: α, β, γ -and 𝛿 -tocopherols and α, β, γ- and 𝛿 -tocotrienols. Tocotrienols differ from the corresponding tocopherols only in their aliphatic tail. Free radical scavenging reactions of α tocopherol take place via the α -tocopheroxyl radical as an intermediate.

Tocopherol isomers are chain-breaking antioxidants. α-tocopherol, the most biologically active and abundant form of vitamin E in vivo, efficiently transfers a hydrogen atom to a lipid free radical, such as peroxyl, alkoxyl, and carbon~centered radicals, giving the corresponding non-radical product of the lipid and an α -tocopheroxyl radical.

Most notably, vitamin E prevents the oxidation of the polyunsaturated fatty acids, but is protects other lipids and related components (e.g. vitamin A) as well. It therefore occupies a unique position in the arsenal of natural antioxidants providing protection against various diseases.
Mechanism of vitamin E as antioxidant

Antioxidant activity of vitamin E

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin that exists in eight different forms. Each form has its own biological activity, the measure of potency or functional use in the body.

Vitamin E was first discovered in 1922 as a substance necessary for reproduction. Following this discovery, vitamin E was extensively studied, and it has become widely known as a powerful lipid-soluble antioxidant.

 It is actually two sets of four compounds each, the tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma and delta) and the chemically related tocotrienols (alpha, beta, gamma and delta).

Vitamin E compounds (tocopherols and tocotrienols) are well recognized for their effective inhibition of lipid peroxidation in foods and living cells. Vitamin E is synthesized only by plants: therefore it is a very important dietary nutrient for humans and animals.

α-tocopherol is the most active form of vitamin E in humans, and is a powerful biological antioxidant. It is the major lipid soluble found in cells.

The antioxidative activity of the tocopherols is related to scavenging the free radicals of unsaturated lipids. α -Tocopherol, the most biologically active and abundant form of vitamin E in vivo, efficiently transfers a hydrogen atom to a lipid free radical, such as peroxyl, alkoxyl, and carbon~centered radicals, giving the corresponding non-radical product of the lipid and an α-tocopheroxyl radical.

Free-radical mediated pathology has been implicated in the development of degenerative diseases, conditions and also aging process.
Antioxidant activity of vitamin E

Biological activity of vitamin E

Vitamin E, the most important lipid-soluble antioxidant, was discovered at the University of California at Berkeley in 1922 in the laboratory of Herbert M. Evans. At least eight vitamin E isoforms with biological activity have been isolated from plant sources.

Vitamin E is a naturally occurring free radical scavenger and its most widely accepted biological function is its antioxidant property. Vitamin E inhibits the free radical chain peroxidation of polyunsaturated lipids in membranes and lipoprotein.

The polyunsaturated linoleic, arachidonic and docosahexaenoic acids are examples of lipids sensitive to peroxidation. All natural forms and synthetic stereoisomers of vitamin E exhibit to varying degrees the ability to inhibit lipid peroxidation as chain-breaking antioxidants.

Tocopherols and tocotrienols are part of an interlinking set of antioxidant cycles, which has been termed the antioxidant network. Although the antioxidant activity of tocotrienols is higher than that of tocopherols, tocotrienols have a lower bioavailability after oral ingestion. Tocotrienols penetrate rapidly through skin and efficiently combat oxidative stress induced by UV or ozone.

Vitamin E (α-tocopherol) has the highest biological activity and reverses vitamin E deficiency symptoms in humans. α-tocopherol is a required nutrient for humans because it is needed 20 for prevention of vitamin E deficiency symptoms including neuropathy and hemolytic anemia.
Biological activity of vitamin E

Tocotrienols as antioxidant in food

Vitamin E is represented by eight different isomers of varying biological potency: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols differ in that the tocopherols have a saturated C16 isoprenoid side chain whereas the tocotrienols have a similar isoprenoid with an unsaturated side chain.

Tocotrienols as a group or as specific isomers have in recent decades been added to the food supply, either as ingredients added to foods or in dietary supplements.

Three major sources of tocotrienols are rice, palm, annatto. One of the biggest challenges in the food industry is keeping food fresh for extended periods of time. This is of particular concern when food contains monounsaturated or polyunsaturated vegetable oils and it is easily oxidized.

Therefore, antioxidants are added to prevent oxidation and preserve freshness. Palm oil and palm tocotrienols are being added to foods for this purpose. Tocotrienols are as efficient as tocopherols in quenching peroxyl radicals in solution whereas in membranes, tocotrienols seem to be more active.

Tocotrienols and tocopherols are powerful antioxidants – known as early as 1937 – for improving food protection and are shown today to potentially protection from cognitive decline. Tocotrienols can help human minds healthy by protecting the blood vessels going to the brain and maintaining proper circulation.
Tocotrienols as antioxidant in food

Tocotrienols of vitamin E

Tocopherols and tocotrienols which are collectively known as tocochromanols, belongs to the group of vitamin E compounds.

Tocotrienols occupy a special place due to their unique chemical structure and properties. They are generally located in seeds and fruits; however, there is a high variation in the relative abundance for each tocotrienols homologue.

Tocotrienols are a group of four amphipathic molecules (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) that differ in the number and position of the methyl groups in the polar head.

Delta-tocotrienols tends to be the predominant form found in seeds, followed by alpha and gamma forms, whereas gamma-tocotrienols is the predominant form in fruits.

The gamma-tocotrienols is the most prevalent form in nature and it also appears to be the form with strongest potential for dietary health benefits.

Most tocotrienols from market are derived form rice bran oil and palm oil. Presently marketed forms of tocotrienols contain mixed tocotrienols in their unesterified forms.

The major sources of tocotrienols are plant, oils, and the richest sources are palm oil, rice bran oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil.

Tocotrienols are not found in the green parts of plants but, rather in the bran and germ fraction of certain seeds and cereals. All of the natural tocotrienols are fat-soluble, water insoluble oils.
Tocotrienols of vitamin E

Food sources of tocotrienols

Vitamin E is one of the major essential vitamins. Since vitamin E is an essential nutrient for protecting the bio-membrane from oxidative damage, people have to take in sufficient amounts of vitamin E to maintain and promote nutritional health.

Vitamin E consists of two subgroups called tocopherols and tocotrienols. Tocotrienols are less common and belong to the vitamin E family and are potent lipid antioxidant. In foods, in which they occur, they are generally only found in small amounts.

Tocotrienols have become a focus of research in recent years because of new findings showing their high efficacy in protecting against heart-related diseases, including lowering of cholesterol and against certain cancers.

The sources with the largest amount of tocotrienols include wheat, barley, rice and most abundantly, the fruit of the palm from which palm oil is extracted.

Palm oil is by far the richest source of tocotrienols. Palm oil is unique because it contains both tocotrienols and tocopherols unlike other vegetable oils some of which contain mainly alpha-tocopherol as the major tocopherol component.

The tumor protective effect of tocotrienols form palm oil was demonstrated by Komiyama and Yamoka (1993), Nesaretnam (1995), Guthrie (1997) and others.

The vitamin E fraction of palm oil, which is rich in tocotrienols, appears to be important in reducing certain tumors because palm oil stripped of the vitamin E does increase tumor yields.
Food sources of tocotrienols

Antioxidant vitamins

The antioxidant vitamins are E and C, as well as beta carotene, a plant form of vitamin A.  The antioxidant function of these vitamins could at least in part, enhance immunity by maintaining the functional and structural integrity of important immune cells.

Oxidation is a process that naturally occurs in the body and natural consequences of it are the radical particles that have since been dubbed as ‘free radicals’. Acting at the molecular level, these antioxidants inactivate a particle of free radicals, which in humans are most commonly ‘activated’ oxygen molecules.

Free radicals can damage basic genetic material, cell walls and other cell structures and eventually this damage can become irreparable and lead to disease.

Some of the basic food groups that prove to be rich sources of antioxidant vitamin are the following:
*Breads, cereals, pasta and starchy vegetables
*Fruits and vegetables
*Fat-free milk and low-fat dairy products
*Lean meat, fish and poultry

A frequent health recommendation to reduce the risk for development chronic disease is to continue at least five servings of fruits and vegetables. A steady supply of antioxidant vitamin should enhance the body’s natural defense mechanism and improve the quality and length of life.

A large body of epidemiologic evidence now supports the role of antioxidant vitamin including ascorbate, alpha-tocopherol and beat-carotene as protective agents against atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

A high intake of antioxidant vitamins seems to be protective many kinds of cancer, including oral, esophageal, and reproductive.
Antioxidant vitamins

Therapeutic value of tocotrienols

Tocopherols and tocotrienols which are collectively known as tocochromanols, belongs to the group of vitamin E compounds.

Tocotrienols occupy a special place due to their unique chemical structure and properties.

Tocotrienols are a group of four amphipathic molecules (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) that differ in the number and position of the methyl groups in the polar head.

Human studies indicate that they are good antioxidant. These include inhibition of lipid peroxidation decrease in DNA damage, reduction in protein oxidation besides ability to scavenge various biologically relevant free radicals.

Research shows that naturally occurring tocotrienols and natural delta-tocopherol are effective at inducing cell death in human breast cancer cells.

A study on animals found that tocotrienols even increased the benefits of drugs, such as tamoxifen, which fight breast cancer. Tocotrienols also have beneficial effects on cardiovascular system. It is protecting the blood vessels going to the brain and maintaining proper circulation.

Tocotrienols can help protect against heart disease by preventing excess blood clotting, protect against inflammation, lower cholesterol and reduce atherosclerosis.

They have antidiabetic and neuroprotective properties apart from possible antiaging effects.

Tocotrienols appear to be necessary for formal bone growth and calcification. Therefore, without a source of tocotrienols in the diet, human bones become week.
Therapeutic value of tocotrienols

History of Vitamin E

Vitamin E was discovered by Dr Herbert Evans and Katherine Bishop of Berkeley University in California after appearance of an unrecognized substance necessary for reproduction in female rats. It was published in a paper that appear in 1922 in Science.

Evans and Bishop were feeding rats a semi-purified diet when they noticed that the female rats were unable to produce offspring because the pups died in the womb.

They the fed the female rats lettuce and wheat germ, and observed that healthy offspring were produced. Vitamin E was isolated as α-tocopherol.

The name tocopherol is derived from the Greek tokos meaning childbirth or offspring, the Greek pherein meaning to bring forth and ol to designated an alcohol.

The compound with vitamin E activity was first purified from wheat germ oil in 1936 and given the name α tocopherol.

However Agnes Fay Morgan and her colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley are credited with the 1937 discovery of vitamin E’s special role in the body.

In 1940s, a team of Canadian physicians discovered that vitamin E could protect from coronary heart disease. Research in 2001, discovered that vitamin E from food and supplements may help slow mental decline and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

In one study, those with the highest intake of vitamin E had nearly a 40 percent reduction in the rate of mental decline.

History of Vitamin E

Vitamin E in human body

Vitamin E is the main antioxidant that protects all cells from damage. It was discovered in 1922 in vegetable oil given the name ‘tocopherol’.

Vitamin E is the name given to a group of eight lipid soluble tocopherols and tocotrienols.

 Vitamin E is only synthesized by plants, tocopherols are present in oil seeds, leaves, and other green parts of higher plants.

In contrast tocotrienols are not found in the green parts of plants, rather, in the bran and germ fraction of certain seeds and cereals.

Researchers have found that 120 IU of vitamin E supplementation daily greatly reduced DNA damage among men eating a diet high in polyunsaturated acids.

Observational studies have suggested that high intake of antioxidant including vitamins E, may lower the risk of some chronic disease, especially heart disease.

Different forms of vitamin E, other than alpha-tocopherol, have immuno-regulatory functions.

Alpha-tocopherol is the most common form of vitamin E occurring in human blood and tissue and it has the highest biological activity among all tocopherol and tocotrienols.

Alpha-tocopherol is the form of vitamin E that appears to have the greatest nutritional significant. Vitamin E deficiency has been observed in individuals with severe malnutrition, genetic defects affecting the alpha-TTP, and fat malabsorption syndrome.

Severe vitamin E deficiency results mainly in neurological symptoms, including impaired balance and coordination, injury to the sensory nerves and damage to the retina of the eye.

Vitamin E in human body

Vitamin E in History

Vitamin E was discovered in 1922 by Evans and Bishop as an unidentified factor in vegetable oils required for reproduction in female rats.

The observation was published in 1922. First named ‘factor X’ and the ‘antisterility factor’, Evans suggested adopting the letter E to designate the factor following the then recognized vitamin D.

A vitamin E active compound was isolated from wheat germ oil in 1936.

Because this compound permitted an animal to have offspring, research group named the compound alpha-tocopherol from Greek word ‘tocos’ (meaning childbirth) and ‘ferein’ (to bring forth), relating to its essentiality for rats to bear young. To indicate the presence of an OH group in the molecule, ‘ol’ was added to the ending.

Its correct structure was given in 1938 and the substance was first synthesized by P. Karrer, also in 1938.

In 1940s, a team of Canadian physicians discovered that vitamin E could protect people from coronary heart disease.

Demand for vitamin E has rapidly increased. Along with market demand, the number of product types available to the pharmaceutical food, feed, and cosmetic industries has increased.

In 1968 the Food and Nutrition Boards of the National Academy of Sciences officially recognized vitamin E as an essential nutrient.
Vitamin E in History