Vitamin E content in palm oil

Palm oil is a good source of vitamin E. Vitamin E is an essential nutrient. A major factor in the efficiency of vitamin E in protecting people from the ravages of diseases is its ability to act as an antioxidant.

A fat-soluble vitamin, vitamin E is an essential micronutrient for humans and consists of two series of compounds - tocopherols and tocotrienols.

They are usually present in low concentration in most vegetable oils. Both are characterized by a side chain which is saturated in the tocopherols, but unsaturated in the tocotrienols.

Palm oil is unique because it contains both tocotrienols and tocopherols unlike other vegetable oil some of which contain mainly alpha-tocopherol as the major tocopherol component.

The distribution of vitamin E in palm oil is tocopherols 18-22% and tocotrienols 78-82%. Alpha and gamma tocopherol each account for about 35% of total tocopherols, while gamma tocopherol accounts for about 10%.

Amongst the tocotrienols, the major ones are gamma tocotrienol (46%), alpha tocotrienol (22%) and delta tocotrienol (12%).

Vitamin E is a fat soluble and it attacks free radicals in the fatty tissues. Evidence suggests that vitamin E slows down the aging process and protects against degenerative diseases.

In addition, vitamin E also is known to give human immune system a boost fight off foreign invaders, improves sexual performance and increases athletic performance among other things.
Vitamin E content in palm oil