For your skin
Vitamin E's more potent cousin, better at chasing down free radicals and shielding skin from UV-driven aging. A systematic review concluded it protects against inflammation, UV damage, and pigmentation; pairs naturally with vitamin C.
Want the science? Keep reading ↓Mechanism of action
Unsaturated isoprenoid side-chain vitamin E homolog with 40-60x the lipid-peroxidation-quenching potency of alpha-tocopherol in some models; in fibroblasts upregulates COL1A1/COL3A1 genes and protects against UV-induced inflammation and melanogenesis.
Why we tier this moderate
2 cited papers across 1 country. The mechanism is well-described and there's at least one controlled trial in the literature, but we tier this Moderate rather than Strong to stay honest about how many specific papers we cite directly.
Cited research
Pang KL, Chin KY, Effects of tocotrienol on aging skin: A systematic review, Frontiers in Pharmacology 2022;13:1006198 — systematic review concludes tocotrienols protect skin from inflammation, UV radiation, and melanin accumulation
Makpol S et al., Modulation of collagen synthesis and its gene expression in human skin fibroblasts by tocotrienol-rich fraction, Archives of Medical Science 2011;7(5):889-895 — TRF pretreatment protected fibroblasts from H2O2-induced oxidative stress and upregulated COL I and COL III gene expression
Sources: PubMed · KCI · J-Stage · CNKI · Wanfang · SFD · MFDS · Cochrane · SCCS · CIR. Every entry points to a specific document. See methodology for what each outcome label means.