ABSTRACT
Vitamin E is a generic term that refers to family of eight natural compounds that are further divided into two subgroups called tocopherols and tocotrienols (McIntyre et al. 2000). Tocopherols are commonly found in high concentrations in a wide variety of foods, whereas tocotrienols are relatively rare and found in appreciable levels only in a few specifi c vegetable fats (Table 1), such as palm oil (Cottrell 1991). Tocopherols and tocotrienols have the same basic chemical structure characterized by a long phytyl chain attached at the 2-position of a chromanol ring structure (Fig. 1).
