Addition compounds of oxidizing tocopherol and soybean lecithin

Evidence is presented for the formation of addition compounds from tocopherol and soybean lecithin, when adsorbed in monolayer on silica from a mixed solution in chloroform and oxidized at 80 C for 72 hr. Tocopherol was present at 7 mol % of the lecithin in the monolayer. The compounds produced are analogous to linoleic acid-tocopherol adducts previously reported by us. UV spectra of the mixed lecithin and tocopherol monolayers while in silica gel slurry in a solvent were obtained by the method previously reported by us for oxidized linoleic acid and tocopherol monolayers. The monolayer spectra show no evidence for tocopherol dimer. A minor amount of quinone is indicated, but the spectrum has a maximum at 287 nm with no other major peaks. The proposed addition compounds have been characterized by transesterification and hydrogenation, UV, IR, thin layer chromatography and gas chromatography retention behavior, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis. IR spectra of twice-chromatographed addition compounds show specific lecithin absorption bands (5.75 μ; 10.3 μ) together with much enhanced 3.4-3.5, 6.8, 7.25 and 9.14 μ peaks, the latter two being characteristic of α-tocopherol. The UV spectrum of the adducts showed λ max (CHCl) 3 287 nm, with shoulders at 276 and 300 nm. Hydrogenation removed the peaks at 287 and 276 nm, leaving a peak at 300 nm similar to that of the linoleic acid-tocopherol adduct. Esters of the adducts prepared by transesterification and hydrogenation were similar by all our chemical, chromatographic and spectral tests to the previously characterized esters of the linoleic acid-tocopherol adduct.