484 THE TOCOPHEROLS 



designating the individual specific types. Without these prefixes the term 

 tocopherol is considered synonymous with tocopherols and vitamin E. 



Unique in the history of vitamins was the organization of two interna- 

 tional symposia dealing with vitamin E. The first, in London in 1939, was 

 sponsored by the Nutrition Panel of the Society of Chemical Industry; the 

 second, in New York ten years later (lacking one week), under the auspices 

 of the New York Academy of Sciences and marking about the twenty-fifth 

 birthday of vitamin E. The volume of the proceedings of the first^ (edited 

 by Bacharach and Drummond) contains less than one hundred pages (fif- 

 teen papers and discussions). That of the second^ (edited by Mason) is 

 almost five times this size. These publications not only illustrate the ad- 

 vantages of such conferences for crystallizing opinions and guiding the 

 course of further investigation, but they are also enduring records of prog- 

 ress. They contain valuable bibliographies, as do the many reviews to 

 which reference will be made. Especially useful are the annotated bibliog- 

 raphies prepared by Merck and Company, Inc.^ (1925-1941) and Distilla- 

 tion Products Industries^ (1940-1950), which also contain references to 

 suggested clinical applications and to many of the patents which have been 

 granted for the synthesis of tocopherols, their starting materials and de- 

 rivatives, and their use, alone and with synergists, in the stabilization of 

 oils, fats, and other autoxidizable substances. 



Had the physiological role of vitamin E not been extended far beyond 

 the confines of reproduction, the manner of its action would still be an 

 intriguing problem, unsolved after a quarter of a century. So many connec- 

 tions have been established with other biological processes that even a 

 brief survey of them is little short of bewildering. Attempts at coordinating 

 the activities of vitamin E under some fundamental and unifying concept 

 have not yet been rew^arded. An understanding of its chemical nature and 

 properties, although this has progressed much farther, is not complete. 



A. CHEMISTRY OF VITAMIN E 



The first work on its chemical nature^ indicated that, like vitamins A 

 and D, vitamin E was to be found in the unsaponifiable portion of certain 

 fats, that it was somewhat vulnerable to saponification, and that it was 

 destroyed by bromination and acetylation but not by hydrogenation. Vac- 

 uum distillation caused considerable decomposition, but solvent partition 

 as between pentane and 92 % methanol effected some concentration. 



^ Vitamin E, a Symposium. Heffer and Sons, Cambridge, 1940. 



6 Vitamin E. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 52, Art. 3, 63-428 (1949). 



^ Alpha Tocopherol, Merck and Co., Inc., May and December, 1941. 



* Vitamin E. Distributed by the National Vitamin Foundation, 150 Broadway, 



New York 7, New York (1950, 1952). 

 9 H. M. Evans and G. O. Burr, Mem. Univ. Calif. 8, 176 pp., (1927). 



