In this report, oxidation of biomembrane lipids, phospholipid (LH) and cholesterol (ChH), were examined experimentally in the presence of vitamin E (VEH) by using a liposome system, which is used widely as a biomembrane model. A kinetic model was constructed by taking into account mechanisms of anti-oxidation and pro-oxidation by VEH to the co-oxidation mechanisms of biomembrane lipids reported previously. The model quantitatively described the oxidation behavior in the liposome system under various VEH addition conditions. The model also predicted the oxidation behavior in vivo under various oral ingestion conditions of VEH. The results suggest that ChH oxidation, which causes various diseases, can be suppressed effectively by taking a certain amount of VEH once a day to avoid a reduction in the VEH concentration present in the biomembrane. The proposed kinetic approach should be a useful tool for quantitatively characterizing complicated reaction systems, such as biomembrane oxidation.

Glycerol can be effectively converted to glyceric acid, a high value‐added pharmaceutical raw material, through its partial oxidation over an Au/Al2O3 catalyst under strongly basic conditions. The factors important for the highly selective production of glyceric acid were investigated experimentally. It was clarified that NaOH was involved in the glycerol activation step to a glycerol alkoxide intermediate (2, 3‐dihydroxypropoxide) in the liquid phase, then glyceric acid was formed by OOH species derived from O2 on an Au catalyst in the partial oxidation step. We have newly discovered the concerted effect of NaOH and O2 in different reaction steps.