VI. OCCURRENCE IN FOOD 513 



of tocopherols when the intake is abundant.*-^ Lard** and fish oils^ may 

 contain small amounts. Bacterial synthesis of tocopherol in the intestine'" 

 is unlikely;" indeed, the feeding of siilfaguanidine in a diet high in cod liver 

 oil protected rats against peroxide-produced yellow-brown coloration of 

 adipose tissue,'- perhaps due to an in vivo antioxygenic effect of the sulfa 

 drug. 



The amount found in cereal products depends primarily upon the ex- 

 tent of milling, since the tocopherols are mostly in and near the embryo;'^ 

 in durum wheat the non-germ tocopherol is fairly uniformly distributed 

 throughout the endosperm. In animal products the content increases with 

 the rising level of vitamin E in the diet, especially in the liver and body 

 fats, as recentlj^ found in swine;''' more tocopherol was found in the V)lood 

 cells than in the plasma. The severity of processing and length of storage 

 to which the foodstuffs have been subjected are major factors, whatever 

 the source. In dairy cows the level of plasma tocopherols seems to be directly 

 related to the mtake, whether this varies as the result of natural seasonal 

 supply or of supplementary feedings.'^' '^ The tocopherol content of hu- 

 man serum seems to vary similarly.''^ 



As mentioned in connection with mammary transmission,'^'^' the amount 

 of vitamin E in milk is closely dependent on the amount in the diet and is 

 greater in colostrum than in later milk. Recently, in a series of human milk 

 samples representing various donors and stages of lactation, the figures 

 were 0.10 to 0.48 mg. per 100 ml.;-- the mean was 0.24 mg., or about 80 y 

 per gram of fat, and throughout the period of lactation (3rd through 37th 



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8 X. Sinimonds, J. E. Becker, and E. V. McCollum, /. Xutrition 1, 39 (1928). 



9 C. D. Robeson and J. G. Baxter, /. Am. Chem. Soc. 65, 940 (1943). 

 i» J. Pindborg, Nature 164, 493 (1949). 



" P. L. Harris, Nature 165, 572 (1950). 



*2 H. Granados, E. Aaes-Jorgensen, and H. Dam, Experientia 6, 150 (1950). 



" D. S. Binnington and J. S. Andrews, Cereal Chem. 18, 678 (1941). 



" J. W. Bratzler, J. K. Loosli, V. N. Krukovsky, and L. A. Maynard, J. Xutrition 



42, 59 (1950). 

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N. Y. Acad. Sci. 52, 276 (1949). 



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 503 (1949). 



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18 K. E. Mason and W. L. Bryan, J. Nutrition 20, 501 (1940). 



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2» D. B. Parrish, G. H. Wise, and J. S. Hughes, J. Dairy Sci. 30, 849 (1947). 



21 M. L. Quaife, /. Biol. Chem. 169, 513 (1947). 



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