Any member of a group of fat-soluble chromanols that exhibit biological activity against vitamin E deficiency. The vitamers in this class consists of a chroman-6-ol core which is substituted at position 2 by a methyl group and (also at position 2) either a saturated or a triply-unsaturated hydrocarbon chain consisting of three isoprenoid units. The major function of vitamin E is to act as a natural antioxidant by scavenging free radicals and molecular oxygen.