Developing functional foods using red palm olein. IV. Tocopherols and tocotrienols

Two functional foods (pan bread and sugar-snap cookies), were prepared using red palm olein (RPOL) and red palm shortening (RPS) with the objective of providing higher amounts of antioxidant vitamin E in our diet. The total vitamin E contents in the palm oils used in this study were significantly higher (ranging from 717.8 to 817.5 mg/kg fat) than those in the palm shortenings (ranging from 451.0 to 479.9 mg/kg fat). Tocotrienols were found to be the predominant compounds (about 81–84% of the total vitamin E) in all of the palm oil and palm shortening samples. The total tocopherol and total tocotrienol contents were significantly higher in bread made with control shortening (325.0 and 468.0 mg/kg fat) than in that made with a 75% replacement level of RPOL (192 and 407 mg/kg fat) or RPS (101.4 and 300 mg/kg fat). Similar trends were observed in the white bread and the brown bread made with RPOL and RPS. The tocotrienol contents in cookies made with varying levels of replacement RPS ranged from 229.1 to 317.8 mg/kg fat, compared with 379.4 to 672.3 mg/kg fat in cookies made with RPOL. The tocotrienols were found to be the predominant fraction in cookies made either with RPS (58 to 68%) or with RPOL (about 69 to 83% of the total vitamin E). Cookies, being higher in fat contents, would be better providers of these desirable phytochemicals and antioxidant vitamins than breads.