Research progress in the synthesis of vitamin E

Vitamin E is a kind of antioxidant with good biological activity and medical functions. The demand for the vitamin E product on the market is constantly increasing. Currently 80% of vitamin E that people acquired is from synthetic product, so there is a broad development prospect for improving synthetic process and producing vitamin E product with high purity. In this paper, the preparation methods of trimethylhydroquinone and isophytol, which were materials for the synthesis of vitamin E, were briefly introduced. The research progress of new catalyst systems and new solvent systems were summarized. In addition, the existed problems and development prospect of the synthetic process were also commented.