The Biological Determination of Vitamin E

Abstract

A new low-fat diet was shown to be satisfactory for vitamin E assays. A new criterion, viz., the increase in weight during gestation, was shown to be valid as a basis for the determination of vitamin E. The new method was found to be more sensitive and more economical than others heretofore reported. Synthetic α-, β- and γ-tocopherols and α-tocopheryl acetate were found to have relative biological activities of 100, 25, 19 and 100, respectively. For an equal response the requirement for vitamin E on the low-fat diet was less than half of that on a high-fat diet.