It was discovered in 1922 in vegetable oil given the name ‘tocopherol’ by Evans and Bishop. It was describe as a dietary factor required for production in rodents.
Vitamin E, of which there are four different forms, is fat soluble. The four have the same name except with the prefixes alpha-, beta-, gamma-, and delta-, (the first four letters of the Greek alphabet).
Only alpha-tocopherol contributes toward meeting the human vitamin E requirement and it is the most common form of vitamin E in food. Alpha-tocopherol has been shown to reverse human vitamin E deficiency symptoms and is recognized preferentially by hepatic alpha-tocopherol transfer protein.
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It is human body’s major fat soluble antioxidant. It protects vulnerable polyunsaturated lipids in cell membranes, in blood and elsewhere throughout the body.
Vitamin E generally occurs in the fats of vegetable foods. Natural vegetable oils are a particularly rich source of vitamin E, with cottonseed corn, soybean, safflower and wheat germ oil having the highest concentrations.
Curiously enough, these oils are also the richest sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which vitamin E protects from oxidation.
Seeds and grain are the sources of high potency oils and hence, important plant sources of vitamin E.
In western diet, vitamins E intake derives mainly from fats and oils contained in margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing and desserts, and increasingly also from fortified food (e.g., breakfast cereals, milk, fruit juices).
Food sources of Vitamin E
