α-tocopherol was discovered in 1922 by the Americans Evans and Bishop, who demonstrated that lettuce leaves contain a substance such as a vitamin necessary to maintain the normal ability of animals to reproduce. Working independently, in 1924 Schur performed a similar study and named the product he had discovered Vitamin E.
Tocopherols belong to the group of natural compounds - tocol derivatives. They are light yellow, oily, viscous liquids, insoluble in water, readily soluble in chloroform, ether, hexane, petroleum ether, worse - in acetone and ethanol.
Vitamin E biological functions are determined by the biochemical complex of multiple cells of a living organism. The absence of tocopherols in the body is the cause of primary specific disorders as well as secondary ones, that is when metabolic products control individual links of intracellular metabolism. Such control can be provided in one case by an antioxidant effect, in another by a specific biochemical interaction of active centres localized in various structural elements of the cell.
Tocopherols are used in the treatment of many diseases:
• liver diseases in children, especially viral hepatitis, due to an increase in the phagocytic activity of leukocytes;
• treatment of patients with porphyria (tocopherol administration eliminates the disorder of porphyrin metabolism);
• for the prevention of miscarriages during pregnancy;
• treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers;
• treatment of patients with achlorhydria;
• diseases of the cardiovascular system;
• treatment of atherosclerosis of the heart, peripheral arteries, peripheral venous lesions;
• treatment of patients with diabetic angiopathy, rheumatism, etc.
Vitamin E is prescribed for various diseases of the genital area that interfere with the normal reproduction of offspring (disovarial and hypo-ovarian syndromes, habitual miscarriage, placental abruption and threatening abortion, some kinds of impotence). With some success, tocopherol is prescribed to women with complicated menopause.