Alpha-tocopherol was thermally oxidized and degraded at high temperatures and the resulting products were chromatographically separated and identified by LC-MS. Alpha-tocopherol dissolved in glycerol was heated at 200^{circ}C for 30 min. The thermal products were separated by hexane extraction and analyzed by HPLC using a reversed phase $mu$-Bondapak $C_{18}-column$ with two kinds of elution solvents: a mixture of acetonitrile and methanol (3:2), and of acetonitrile, methanol, 2-propanol, chloroform and methylene chloride (3:2:5:0.5:0.5) in a gradient mode. The isolated thermal. products of alpha-tocopherol were more viscous than alpha-tocopherol, and dark brown in color. Major thermal degradation products of alpha-tocopherol were identified by LC-MS, and the structures of thermal products were proposed. Alpha-tocopherol and its thermal degradation products were degraded into fragments, mainly at the non-aromatic parts. The degradation products of alpha-tocopherol. were combined with oxidized product (tocopherylquinone) to make thermal. products through dimerization.