Abstract
The effect of sesame seed (with negligible amounts of α-tocopherol and about 25 mgγ-tocopherol/100 g sesame seed) on tocopherol concentrations in the plasma and tissues wasstudied in rats fed diets contained 10 (low), 50 (normal), or 250 (high) mg a-tocopherol/kg diet with or without 20% sesame seed for 8 weeks.
The concentrations of a-tocopherol in the plasma and tissues showed a progressive increase paralleling the a-tocopherol contents in the diets. Sesame seed caused a marked increase of a-tocopherol in the plasma and tissues of rats fed any amount of a-tocopherol. However, γ-tocopherol was found only in the low a-tocopherol + sesame seed-fed group, and not in thenormal or high a-tocopherol + sesame seed-fed group. Furthermore, a-tocopherol concentration in plasma lipoprotein fractions was high in the VLDL and HDL and in liver cell fractions was high in the microsome. A significantly higher concentration of a-tocopherol was observed in each fraction of the sesame seed-fed groups in comparison with the control groups. These results indicate that sesame seed causes a marked increase of a-tocopherol concentration in rats fed an α-tocopherol containing diet with sesame seed.
