Pharmacokinetic study of a­-tocopherol in three different oils in rats / Adilah Mohd Fazli

The pharmacokinetic profile of o-tocopherol from three different oil vehicles, namely palm oil, soybean oil, and virgin coconut oil (VCO) in 9 male Sprague-Dawley rats with weight ± 380 g was compared after oral administration of 30 IU/kg dose of a­ tocopherol. The rats' blood samples were taken at predetermined time intervals up to 36 hours and the corresponding plasma a-tocopherol concentrations were quantified by direct injection of plasma samples, after deproteinization step, into High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The total absorption of the u-tocopherol, calculated as the area under the plasma concentration time curve (AUCc-∞), was significantly higher 1.8 times for the VCO formulation, when compared with the palm oil. Moreover, this study also showed that rapid absorption of u-tocopherol can be obtained from palm oil since the Tmax of this oil was the shortest. Even though the a-tocopherol AUc-∞ and Cmax of VCO formulation was L.4 and L.6 higher than soybean oil formulation, they were not significantly different when analysed by ANOVA. A similar result was obtained when a-tocopherol AUCc-∞ and Cmax soya bean oil were compared to palm oil formulation in which the former was L.2 and L. L times higher than the latter respectively. Though, they were not significantly different when analysed by ANOVA.