Vitamin e in parenteral lipid emulsions

Abstract

“Vitamin E” refers to a family of eight isomers that are divided into two subfamilies: tocopherols and tocotrienols. Due to the differences in their chemical structure, tocopherols and tocotrienols were shown to have unique and distinct pharmacological activity. Despite their significant health benefits, a major shortcoming to vitamin E use is its low and erratic oral bioavailability, which was attributed to its poor aqueous solubility. Parenteral administration by lipid emulsions was therefore considered a viable and an alternative route for vitamin E delivery. In this chapter, the various health benefits of vitamin E and a summary of the pharmaceutical preparations that contain vitamin E were briefly discussed. Then, a general overview of parenteral lipid emulsions was provided, and the challenges of manufacturing and incorporating vitamin E in parenteral lipid emulsions were discussed. Overall, the emphasis of this chapter was to highlight the current state and the potential pharmaceutical and health applications of parenteral lipid emulsions rich in vitamin E.