OCCURRENCE OF THE VITAMIXS E 689 



review of the chemical aspects of the field. The monograph of Sebrell 

 and Harris on The Vitamins includes a comprehensive re\aew of the to- 

 copherols, principally the article by Harris, Mattill, and IMason.^' The 

 newer discoveries in the field are to be included in the Report of the Third 

 International Congress on ^'itamin E held in Venice in September, 1955. 

 Especially re\'ealing are the papers of Harris and Mason^- on the metabolic 

 aspects and that of Bolliger and Bolliger-Quaife*' on analytical methods. 



3. Occurrence of the Vitamins E 



(-?) Distribution in Plant Tissues 



The various types of tocopherols (\itamins E) which are found in nature 

 occur largely in the plants; a minimum quantity is present in animal 

 tissues. Although the data now available on the total tocopherols present 

 in various plants and animal sources appear to be fairly reliable, those 

 which report the distribution of the several types of tocopherols must all 

 be re-evaluated in view of the fact that the more recently discovered to- 

 copherols — i.e., € and f — were not considered in the analytical procedures. 



All green plants contain certain demonstrable amounts of the tocopherols. 

 ^\^leat germ oiP^ and other seed germ oils'- -^^ are generally considered to 

 have the highest concentration of the vitamins E of any oils. However, 

 according to Dam et al.,^'" green leafy vegetables and rose-hips have more 

 extractable \'itamin E on a dry-w^eight basis than does wheat germ.^^ 

 The vegetable fats are the relatively most important sources of the to- 

 copherols among the natural foods. The proportions of the several to- 

 copherols in various vegetable fats and hydrogenated fats are listed in 

 Table 1. 



Green et al.^ reported that the distribution of tocopherols in a chick 

 mash which contained a total of 2.5 mg. of tocopherols 100 g. was as 

 follows: a, 25.4%; 7, 0%; a, 16.2%; 5, 0%; e, 47.0%; and r, 14.7%. 

 According to Lange,^^ hydrogenated vegetable shortenings have been 

 found to have the following total tocopherol content (expressed in mg.%) : 



" R. S. Harris, H. A. Mattill, and K. E. Mason, The Tocopherols, in W. H. Sebreli 

 Jr., and R. S. Harris, The Vitamins, Acad. Press, New York, 1954, Vol. Ill, pp. 481-573. 



^"^ P. L. Harris and K. E. Mason, Vitamin E and Metabolic Processes. Proc. Third 

 Intern. Congr. on Vitamin E, Venice, Sept., 1955. Valdonega, Verona, 1956, pp. 1-25, 

 26-29. 



" H. S. Olcott, ./. Biol. Chem., 107, 471-474 (1934). 



«^ H. M. Evans and G. O. Burr, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., U. S., 11, 334-341 (1925). 



^* H. Dam, J. Glavind, I. Prange, and J. Ottesen, Kgl. Danske Videnskab. Selskab. 

 Biol. Medd., 16, No. 7, 1-39 (1941). 



« W. Lange, J. Am. Oil Chemists' Soc, 27, 414-422 (1950). 



