Vitamins from wheat germ

Since the early 1920s, it has been known that rats fed only cow s milk cannot produce offspring. The principle from wheat germ that can rectify this deficiency in both male and female rats was named vitamin E. When the compound known as vitamin E was isolated in 1936. it was named tocopherol. Since then,. several other closely related compounds have been discovered from natural sources, and thi.s family of natural products took the generic name locoph-erols. 

Oil from wheat germ (the embryo of the seed of Triticum aestivuni) is rich in linoleic acid (ca. 60%), also contains a-linolenic acid (ca. 5%), 16% palmitic acid, and 14% oleic acid. The oil is rich in tocopherols and shows high vitamin E activity. ... 

HISTORY. In 1922, Evans and Bishop, of the University of California, discovered that a fat-soluble dietary factor (then called factor X) in lettuce and wheat germ was essential for successful reproduction in rats. In 1924, Sure, of the University of Arkansas, named the factor vitamin E. In 1936, Evans and co-workers isolated crystalline vitamin E from wheat germ oil and named it tocopherol, from the Creek words tokos (offspring) and pherein (to bear), meaning to bear offspring. In 1938, the vitamin was first synthesized by the Swiss chemist, Karrer. 

Ge, Y., Ni, Y., Yan, H., Chen, Y. and Cai, T. 2002. Optimization of the supercritical fluid extraction of natural vitamin E from wheat germ using response surface methodology, J. Food Sci. 67 239-243. 

Squalene is an isoprenoid compound that is found in large quantities in shark liver and in smaller quantities in olives, rice bran and wheat germ. It is a bactericidal compound and an antioxidant and it aids in skin nutrition. Several cosmetic applications of rice bran and rice bran oil arise from the biological effects of their squalene, vitamin E and y-oryzanol content. Since these compounds are fat-soluble, rice bran oil is used for all these preparations. 

Another fat-soluble vitamin, E, was found by Evans and Bishop in 1923. Pregnant rats on a defined diet (alcohol-extracted casein, cornstarch, and lard) supplemented with butter (vitamins A and D) and yeast extract (vitamin B group) produced few young because of fetal resorption. Male rats on the same diet were sterile. The disorders, which have not been identified in man, were corrected by wheat-germ oil, from which tocopherol, the active ingredient, was isolated in 1936. In spite of intensive investigations and a recognition that the vitamin is an antioxidant and destroyer of free radicals, the function of vitamin E remains obscure. 

Generous sources of this vitamin include pork. lamb, and beef livers hog kidneys yeasts pork beef tongue heans lean meats wheat germ peanut meal and green peas. Nicotinic acid can be synthesized by almost all planLs and animals. Tryptophan can be metabolized to a nicotinic acid nucleotide in animrds. but the efficiency of this mullistep process varies from species to species. Plants and many microorganisms synthesize this vitamin through alternative routes by use of aspartic acid. 

S-Tt>capherol, 3,4-Hihydro-2,8 1 i methyl. 2- 4,8,-12-trimethyUridecyl)-2H-l-benzopyran-6-ol 8-methyltocol. C H O, mol wt 402-64. C 80.54%, H 11.52%, O 7.95%. Appears to be a rather common member of the vitamin E complex. Ingredient of Mixed Toeopherols Concentrate, N.F. It was found to constitute approx 30% of the mixed toeopherols in soybean oil. 5% of those in wheat germ oil. and there is evidence of its occurrence in cottonseed and peanut oils. Claimed to be the most potent antioxidant of the toeopherols. It has only one hundredth of the activity of natural -tocopherol in the Evans resorption sterility test for vitamin E. Lsoln from soybean oil Stern et al., J. Am ... 

Humans are unable to synthesize thiamine, so they must obtain the vitamin from other sources in which it occurs naturally. The best sources of thiamine are brewer s yeast, whole grains, wheat germ, lean meats, organ meats (such as liver and kidney), fish, dried beans, soybeans, peas, nuts, green leafy vegetables, avocados, raisins, plums, and kelp. Thiamine is also made synthetically by a process that was first developed in the 1930s by American chemist Robert R. 

Vitamin E was first recognized in 1922 as a dietary factor essential for normal reproduction in rats, hence its name tocopherol from the Greek tocos, birth, and pherein, to bring about. Vitamin E is a group of compounds of similar structure, the most active of which is a-tocopherol. This vitamin occurs in fish oil, in other oils such as cottonseed and peanut oil, and in leafy green vegetables. The richest source of vitamin E is wheat germ oil. 

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