ABSTRACT
Vitamin E occurs naturally in eight different forms: α-, β-, γ-and δ-isomers of both tocopherol (Toc) and tocotrienol (T3). Tocopherol has a phytyl side chain attached to a chroman ring, whereas the tail of T3 is an unsaturated isoprenoid chain. Tocopherol is abundantly present in common vegetable oils and nuts, whereas T3, a minor plant constituent, is particularly abundant in rice bran (Sookwong et al., 2007), palm and wheat germ (Sundram et al., 2002). Some recent investigations have shown that T3 has better antioxidative (Serbinova et al., 1991; Suzuki et al., 1993), antihypercholesterolemic (Parker et al., 1993), anticancer (McIntyre et al., 2000) and neuroprotective (Sen et al., 2000; Khanna et al., 2003) activities than Toc. These ndings suggest that T3 may serve as a food component with better health benets.
