8 is E-nough

Better Nutrition, Dec, 2004

Many people still think of vitamin E as a single compound but, in fact, natural vitamin E is a mix of eight compounds. Four are tocopherols (toe-KOF-ur-ols)--alpha, beta, gamma and delta; and four are tocotrienols (TOE-koe-TRY-uh-nols) with the same four Greek letters. Alpha tocopherol is the compound found in most vitamin E supplements because it's normally found in high levels in human blood.

The inference is that it must be the most important. That might not be true. Gamma tocopherol, for instance, appears to be more effective in preventing prostate and colon cancer; and all four tocotrienols might be better at preventing breast cancer.