Coconut oil contains virtually no vitamin E. A tablespoon of coconut oil provides just 0.01 mg of alpha-tocopherol, the primary form of vitamin E your body uses. That’s less than 0.1% of the 15 mg daily recommended intake for adults, making coconut oil one of the poorest sources of vitamin E among common cooking oils.
How Much Vitamin E Is Actually Present
The numbers vary slightly depending on the study and the specific coconut oil tested, but every analysis reaches the same conclusion: the amount is negligible. Research on Brazilian vegetable oils found only “trace” levels of vitamin E in coconut oil, while sunflower oil from the same study contained 33 mg per 100g. A separate analysis of total tocopherols and tocotrienols (the two chemical families that make up vitamin E) measured coconut oil at just 4.2 mg per 100g, the lowest of any oil tested. That study’s highest performer, wheat germ oil, came in at 268 mg per 100g.
One study published in the American Journal of Applied Sciences went further, testing coconut oil for every individual form of vitamin E. The result across all four forms: zero. Not low, not trace. Zero detectable vitamin E in the coconut oil sample they analyzed. While other samples have shown tiny amounts, the takeaway is clear: you cannot rely on coconut oil for any meaningful vitamin E intake.
How Coconut Oil Compares to Other Oils
To put coconut oil’s vitamin E content in perspective, here’s what you get from a single tablespoon of other common cooking oils, based on USDA data:
- Sunflower oil (high oleic): 5.75 mg
- Safflower oil: 4.64 mg
- Canola oil: 2.44 mg
- Olive oil: 1.94 mg
- Soybean/cottonseed blend: 1.65 mg
- Sesame oil: 0.19 mg
- Coconut oil: 0.01 mg
Even sesame oil, which sits near the bottom of this list, delivers nearly 20 times more vitamin E per tablespoon than coconut oil. Sunflower oil provides roughly 575 times more. If vitamin E is what you’re after, almost any other cooking oil is a better choice.
Why Coconut Oil Is So Low in Vitamin E
Vitamin E’s primary job in plant oils is protecting unsaturated fatty acids from breaking down through oxidation. It acts as a built-in preservative, intercepting free radicals before they can damage the oil’s delicate chemical bonds. Oils rich in polyunsaturated fats, like sunflower and safflower oil, need more of this protection, so the plants that produce them pack in higher concentrations of vitamin E.
Coconut oil is roughly 82% saturated fat. Saturated fats are inherently resistant to oxidation because their molecular structure has no vulnerable double bonds for free radicals to attack. Coconut oil simply doesn’t need much vitamin E to stay stable, and the coconut palm doesn’t produce it in significant quantities. This is also why coconut oil has a naturally long shelf life (often two years or more) despite its near-total lack of vitamin E.
Better Sources of Vitamin E
Adults need about 15 mg of alpha-tocopherol daily. If you cook with sunflower or safflower oil, two tablespoons gets you most of the way there. Nuts are another excellent option: a cup of dry-roasted almonds contains about 33 mg, and even a single tablespoon of almond butter provides nearly 4 mg.
Seeds, spinach, avocado, and fortified cereals also contribute meaningfully. For people who use coconut oil as their primary cooking fat, it’s worth knowing that your vitamin E is coming from elsewhere in your diet, not from the oil itself. Swapping in sunflower or olive oil for even a portion of your cooking can make a noticeable difference in your daily intake without requiring supplements.