[smoothsilkmusic]

I'm not really familiar with the solubility.

How soluble are the tocopherols (mainly alpha and gamma, although they're quite similar) and fatty acids (ie. those found in nuts, etc) in methanol? I know that Vitamin E is fat-soluble, and that methanol is fully miscible in water, so I would infer that Vitamin E is not miscible in methanol. However, I know that this method of thinking isn't exactly accurate, so I'd like some help.

Also, on regular phase thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates, I separated an extract in 50% methanol, 50% ethyl acetate, with microliter amounts of acetic acid mixed in that system. If the compound/fraction traveled about half way up the regular phase plate, what is it's relative solubility? I know that it didn't move in hexane, so if I had to guess, I would say that it's really polar. However, I don't know the extent of the polarity relative to the used solvent.

Thanks.

[sborg]

Tocopherols are soluble in alcohol.

I'm fairly certain that you cannot use TLC results to calculate the relative solubility of your fraction.  What you can calculate, however, is the Rf of the compound in that solvent system, which is just the distance traveled by the compound divided by the distance traveled by the solvent front, or about 0.5 in your case.

Your compound sounds like it is quite polar given the information you provided.