How to Distinguish Natural Vitamin E and Synthetic Vitamin E
May 22, 2021
How to Distinguish Natural Vitamin E and Synthetic Vitamin E
Nowadays, vitamin E products are used more and more widely, and can be used in various industries such as health care products, food additives, cosmetics and so on. Vitamin E can be divided into two types: natural vitamin E and synthetic vitamin E according to the source. Natural vitamin E is extracted from soybeans, sunflower seeds and other plants rich in vitamin E. Synthetic vitamin E is chemically synthesized. Therefore, how to distinguish between natural vitamin E and synthetic vitamin E is a problem that many people are concerned about.
1.Name
You can distinguish two products from the quality inspection sheet. The name of natural vitamin E starts with D or RRR, such as d-alpha tocopherol, RRR-alpha tocopherol. The name of synthetic vitamin E starts with DL or all, such as dl-alpha tocopherol and all-rac-alpha tocopherol.
2.Specific rotation
In addition to the name, it can also be seen from the quality inspection sheet indicator. One of the most important indicators is specific rotation. Specific rotation ([α]) is a property of a chiral chemical compound. It is defined as the change in orientation of monochromatic plane-polarized light, per unit distance–concentration product, as the light passes through a sample of a compound in solution. Natural vitamin E can detect specific rotation and the specific rotation of natural vitamin E is positive, while the specific rotation of synthetic vitamin E is negative. Natural vitamin E and synthetic vitamin E are isomers. The difference is due to chirality of natural vitamin E and synthetic vitamin E.
As you learn to distinguish between natural and synthetic vitamin E, you may wonder what the difference is between natural and synthetic vitamin E. We'll explain that in detail in our next article.