Vitamin E Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin E, including details on benefits, dosage, supplements, antioxidants.

Preparation of natural alpha-tocopherol from non-alpha-tocopherols.

Yang YW, Wen GD, Wu CJ, Ren QL, Wu PD

National Laboratory of Secondary Resources Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. ceywyang@zju.edu.cn

Non-alpha-tocopherols are hydroxymethylated and hydrogenated to produce alpha-tocopherol in one pot process by simultaneously reacting with paraformaldehyde and hydrogen in the presence of catalysts of benzenesulfonic acid and 5% Pd/C in an autoclave. Effects of various operation conditions have been studied. The preferable reaction conditions are: temperature 180 degrees C to 200 degrees C, pressure 5.0 MPa, acid concentration 0.5 g/100 ml ethanol, mass ratio of Pd/C to tocopherols 7.1 g/100 g, and reaction time 5.0 h. A product with alpha-tocopherol content of 80% was obtained by using a raw material with a total tocopherols content of 80.54%. The conversion of non-alpha-tocopherols is almost 100%, and the mole yield of alpha-tocopherol is more than 90%.

Published 19 November 2004 in J Zhejiang Univ Sci, 5(12): 1524-7.
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