Nutritional genomics and tocopherols

It is clear from the above review that forms of vitamin E in addition to a-tocopherol are likely to be important in optimizing human health. All of these additional tocopherols and tocotrienols are found in plant oils. The problem remains, however, that the levels of these additional forms of vitamin E in oils may be too low to be useful (particularly for therapeutic purposes) without further chemical extraction and concentration by methods such as fractional distillation. It would be extremely cost effective if functional plant oils could be obtained with much higher vitamin E levels than are now available. Moreover, the chemical distribution of tocopherols in many oils is biased towards one particular chemical form. For example, almond oil contains primarily a-tocopherol, while walnut oil contains primarily y-tocopherol. Shintani and DellaPenna (1998) have pioneered a promising approach to these problems 

Note added by the editor - the following figures were valid in 1998 

Miyata, A, Tanabe, T, Takahashi, E, Kayden, HJ, Aral, H and Inoue, K (1995) Human alpha-tocopherol transfer protein cDN A cloning, expression and chromosomal localization. Biochemical J., 306(2), 437—443. 

A and Stocker, A (2000) Vitamin E non-antioxidant roles. Prog. Lipid Res., 39, 231-255. 

JG and Evarts, RP (1974) Gamma tocopherol metabolism, biological activity and significance in human vitamin E nutrition. Am. J. Cliru Nutr., 27(9), 980-986. 

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