Oxygen free radicals have been proposed to be one of the major mechanisms of secondary brain damage in traumatic brain injury. Protective effect by vitamin E against oxidative damage has attracted much attention. Recent studies have demonstrated a novel vitamin E derivative, 2-(alpha-D-glucopyranosyl)methyl-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-6-ol (TMG), has excellent water-solubility and antioxidant activity. The purpose of this study was to investigate protective effects of TMG on experimental traumatic brain edema (BE). Male Wistar rats were anaesthetized with chloral hydrate. Traumatic BE was produced by a cortical freezing lesion. Animals were separated into three groups: saline-treated rats (n = 4), TMG-treated (4 mg/kg) rats (n = 7) and TMG-treated (40 mg/kg) rats (n = 8). Saline or TMG was administered intravenously before lesion production. Animals were sacrificed at 6 hours after lesion production and the brain water content was determined by the dry-wet weight method. Half-life of TMG after intravenous administration of TMG was also investigated. The half life of TMG was approximately 5 minutes. TMG (40 mg/kg) significantly attenuated BE following cryogenic brain injury (p < 0.01). In conclusion, this preliminary study has demonstrated that a novel vitamin E derivative might be promising in the treatment of traumatic BE.