ABSTRACT
The term ‘vitamin E’ was introduced by Evans and Bishop in 1922 to describe an essential nutrient for reproduction in rats.1 Vitamin E exists as at least eight naturally occurring compounds, including α-, β-, δ-, and γ-tocopherol and α-, β-, δ-, and γtocotrienol2 and among these compounds, α-tocopherol has the greatest biological activity. In the 1960s vitamin E was associated with antioxidant function.3 This antioxidant property has aroused the interest of many groups to study its ability to prevent chronic diseases, especially those believed to have an oxidative stress component, such as cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis, and cancer. Vitamin E was proposed as an effective treatment for heart disease in the 1940s,4 which has since been confirmed by several epidemiologic studies and clinical trials.
