The Chemistry of Vitamin E

A year away to 100th year of vitamin E synthesis

“…β‐Tocopherol (aka 5,7‐dimethyl tocol or ζ 2 ‐tocopherol) was first obtained in 1937 by Emerson et al from wheat germ oil[18,23] and later by Todd et al from rice bran oil [53,54]. Bergel et al predicted that β‐tocopherol might be a coumaran or chroman derivative made up of long side chain in the heterocyclic core.…”

“…γ‐Tocopherol aka 7,8‐dimethyl tocol was first isolated from cottonseed oil by Emerson et al [18]. In the year 1994, a copper mediated coupling approach toward the synthesis of (2 R ,4′ R ,8′ R )‐γ‐tocopherol was reported by Netscher et al [58].…”

“…In the year 1936, Evans et al successfully isolated an oily alcohol compound from wheat germ oil and proposed the compound as α‐tocopherol [17]. Next year, they isolated and characterized β‐tocopherol from wheat germ oil and γ‐tocopherol from cottonseed oil [18]. δ‐tocopherol was isolated from soybean oil in 1947 by Stern et al [19].…”

“…In the upcoming years, four tocotrienols, α‐, β‐, γ‐, and δ‐tocotrienol, were found in several vegetable oils [20,21]. Therefore, naturally available vitamin E broadly classified into two categories—tocopherols and tocotrienols and further subdivided into a total of four forms each (Scheme 1) [18,22–24].…”

Problems in the bio-psychology of social organization.

“…While it is true as Gerard and Emerson (39) maintain that the method of analogy has an important place in scientific theory, its usefulness must be Considered introductory to a comparative study in which differences may well be discovered which require a reinterpretation of the similarities first noted. As Emerson (32) has admitted, striking differences are found between insect and human society which may be too great to make the analogy significant. Perhaps the most significant differences come to light in a closer examination of some of the analogies described above.…”