A new vitamin E analogue more active than α-tocopherol in the rat curative myopathy bioassay

Vitamin E owes its biological effects to its antioxidant activity. Kinetic and mechanistic studies on phenolic antioxidants in vitro have led us to design and synthesize all-rac-2,4,6,7-tetramethyl-2-(4',8',12'-trimethyltridecyl)-5-hydroxy-3,4-dihydrobenzofuran, 3. In the rat curative myopathy bioassay the acetate of this compound has 1.5–1.9 times the bioactivity of all-rac-α-tocopherol acetate. This represents the first time that a rationally designed synthetic ‘vitamin’ has been found to have more activity in vivo than the corresponding natural vitamin.