News of Tocotrienols

Tocotrienols are members of the vitamin E family.An essential nutrient for the body, vitamin E is made up of four tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) and four tocotrienols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta).The slight difference between tocotrienols and tocopherols lie in the unsaturated side chain having three double bonds in its farnesyl isoprenoid tail. Tocotrienols are natural compounds found in select vegetable oils, wheat germ, barley, saw palmetto, and certain types of nuts and grains. This variant of vitamin E typically only occurs at very low levels in nature.
Chemically, vitamin E in all of its forms functions as an antioxidant.All of the tocotrienol and tocopherol isomers have this antioxidant activity due to the ability to donate a hydrogen atom (a proton plus electron) from the hydroxyl group on the chromanol ring, to a free radical in the body. This process inactivates ("quenches") the free radical by effectively donating a single unpaired electron (which comes with the hydrogen atom) to the radical. Although the many vitamers of vitamin E have different distributions and metabolic fates, there is as yet no accepted evidence that any of the active forms of vitamin E are able to do any essential function in the body that each of the others is not also able to do. Specifically, symptoms caused by alpha-tocopherol deficiency can be alleviated by tocotrienols. Thus, tocotrienols may be viewed as being members of the natural vitamin E family not only structurally but also functionally. Thus, one model for the function of vitamin E in the body is that it protects cell membranes, active enzyme sites, and DNA from free radical damage.
From:http://natural-food-additive.com/additives/Vitamins/Tocotrienol/