Quote: angela burrell

Interesting. I'm glad this came up.

My bottle of Vitamin E is actually labelled as both. On the front it says Mixed Vitamin E 200 IU Natural Source.

On the side it says Each Softgel Contains: 200 IU of pure vitamin E in the form of d-alpha tocopherol, derived and isolated from 100% natural sources.

So..... it's not mixed? This whole time I thought it was. It definitely says mixed on the front.

Yes, it is, to some extent, a least. It is saying that its 200 international units of Vitamin E is in the form of d-alpha, plus, if you look under "other ingredients," you will find the capsule ingredients, the medium, and what other tocopherols (in small amounts) are present.

Yes, below that it says "encapsulated in a soft gelatin capsule (gelatin, glycerin, purified water) with soy oil." I don't see mention of other tocopherols, unless soy oil counts?

From my experience as a chemist (although I'm not currently doing that ) and keeping in mind that I haven't actually seen what you have, I would say that your product is mostly the alpha form with just a small amount of the other tocopherols mixed in.

Mixed tocopherols can mean a variety of things when listed on a bottle. The term in and of itself doesn't tell you whether there's a lot or a small amount of the other tocopherols in there.

Alpha tocopherol is a strong antioxidant. Gamma tocopherol is a potent anti-inflammatory. Ideally you would like to find large amounts of both alpha and gamma tocopherols in a product with smaller amounts of beta and delta.

Unfortunately, gamma tocopherol is expensive...very expensive to produce. Manufacturers frequently put mostly alpha tocopherol in the product, and add in a little of the remaining tocopherols and legally call it mixed.

Products with a more balanced amount of the other tocopherols will generally list the amounts quite clearly as they've gone to a lot of trouble and expense to put them in there.

 Quote: angela burrell

I don't see mention of other tocopherols, unless soy oil counts?

Soy oil would naturally contain all of the tocopherols in varying amounts depending on how the beans were stored prior to processing.

That likely is the source of the "mixed" tocopherols in your product, although it probably doesn't supply a large amount of anything other than the alpha homologue.

 Quote: MichelleMeyer

... Products with a more balanced amount of the other tocopherols will generally list the amounts quite clearly as they've gone to a lot of trouble and expense to put them in there.

A good thing to find out! Mine does indeed list the other tocopherols and I didn't know that there were some that did not.

Thank you!

 Quote: MichelleMeyer

.....Many upper end products will have significantly higher tocopherol levels. I have one in front of me that has 432 mg of mixed tocopherols (beta, delta, gamma) to 400 IU natural vit E. ...

Can you supply a link?

I have not seen one with anything close to that proportion of mixed tocopherols. I'd love to shop among this type of offering.

Thanks!

Here's a link to the company's product page.

http://www.acgrace.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18&Itemid=12

The A.C. Grace Company has been making only vitamin E for a very long time. They do make a nice quality product. IMO it's not the only nice product out there, but it certainly is a high quality option.

Their vitamin E spray looks promising. I always open up the 400 IU capsules and measure out what I need now. The spray would prevent that waste.

Hubby called from overseas, and I got distracted. That was a very nice distraction though.

I just wanted to add this.

The Unique E product has 400 IU d-alpha tocopherol with 432 mg of the other tocopherols (d-gamma, d-delta, and d-beta).
Of that 432 mg portion, a minimum of 300 mg is the gamma homologue.
That indicates there are approximately equal portions of the alpha and gamma tocopherols in this product.