Tocomin® a Powerful Antioxidant

EDISON, N.J.—Carotech announced the publication of two studies, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that demonstrated taking tocotrienols (as Carotech’s Tocomin® and Tocovid® SupraBio™) could elevate blood plasma levels to protect against neurological damage.

In the first study (Antiox Redox Signal, 8, 5-6:1059-68, 2006), coordinated out of Wayne State University, Detroit, researchers supplied a group of women with normal cholesterol levels an oral fat challenge plus 400 mg of Tocovid SupraBio soft gels; plasma samples were collected every two hours for up to eight hours after supplementation. The maximal alpha-tocotrienol concentrations averaged approximately 3µM in blood plasma, 1.7 µM in LDL, 0.9 µM in triglyceride-rich lipoprotein and 0.5 µM in HDL. Peak plasma levels corresponded to 12- to 30-fold more than the concentration of alpha-tocotrienol required to prevent stroke-related neurodegeneration, as determined by earlier research.

The second study, in press with the Journal of Neurochemistry, was led by Chandan Sen, Ph.D., from the Ohio State University Medical Center. The researchers treated rodent neural cells with low concentrations of tocotrienol prior to exposure to homocysteic acid; the treated cells avoided the cell death associated with the related toxicity. However, to reduce free-radical activity and resulting neurotoxicity caused by linoleic acid, a much higher concentration of tocotrienol was needed—between 10 and 25 times the concentration that prevented the cell death signal.

“As the largest and leading producer of full spectrum tocotrienol complex, Carotech is committed to bringing science to support our customers,” said W.H. Leong, vice president of Carotech (www.carotech.net). “The only way to get tocotrienols into the brain is through supplementation over a period of time to have significant and measurable levels of tocotrienols in the brain for optimum protection.”