All Topics  
Palmitic acid

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Palmitic acid
 
 
  Topics Palmitic acid Topic Home

Palmitic acid,CH3(CH2)14COOH or hexadecanoic acid in IUPAC nomenclature
IUPAC nomenclature

IUPAC nomenclature is a system of naming chemical compounds and of describing the science of chemistry in general. It is developed and kept up to date under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry ....
, is one of the most common saturated fatty acid
Fatty acid

In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid often with a long unbranched aliphatic tail , which is either saturation or Unsaturated compound....
s found in animals and plants. As its name indicates, it is a major component of the oil from palm trees (palm oil
Palm oil

Palm oil is an edible Vegetable fats and oils derived from the fruit of the Arecaceae Elaeis oil palm. Previously the second-most widely produced edible oil, after soybean oil, 28 million tonnes were produced worldwide in 2004....
 and palm kernel oil). The word palmitic is from the French "palmitique", the pith
Pith

Pith is a light substance that is found in vascular plants. It consists of soft, spongy parenchyma cells, and is located in the center of the Plant stem....
 of the palm tree. Palmitic acid was discovered by Edmond Frémy
Edmond Fremy

Edmond Fr?my was a France chemist. He is perhaps best known today for Fr?my's salt, a strong oxidizing agent which he discovered in 1845. Fremy's salt is a long-lived free radical that finds use as a standard in electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy....
 in 1840, in saponified
Saponification

Saponification is the hydrolysis of an ester under base conditions to form an alcohol and the salt of a carboxylic acid . Saponification is commonly used to refer to the reaction of a metallic alkali with a fat or oil to form soap....
 palm oil.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Palmitic acid'
Start a new discussion about 'Palmitic acid'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Palmitic acid,CH3(CH2)14COOH or hexadecanoic acid in IUPAC nomenclature
IUPAC nomenclature

IUPAC nomenclature is a system of naming chemical compounds and of describing the science of chemistry in general. It is developed and kept up to date under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry ....
, is one of the most common saturated fatty acid
Fatty acid

In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid often with a long unbranched aliphatic tail , which is either saturation or Unsaturated compound....
s found in animals and plants. As its name indicates, it is a major component of the oil from palm trees (palm oil
Palm oil

Palm oil is an edible Vegetable fats and oils derived from the fruit of the Arecaceae Elaeis oil palm. Previously the second-most widely produced edible oil, after soybean oil, 28 million tonnes were produced worldwide in 2004....
 and palm kernel oil). The word palmitic is from the French "palmitique", the pith
Pith

Pith is a light substance that is found in vascular plants. It consists of soft, spongy parenchyma cells, and is located in the center of the Plant stem....
 of the palm tree. Palmitic acid was discovered by Edmond Frémy
Edmond Fremy

Edmond Fr?my was a France chemist. He is perhaps best known today for Fr?my's salt, a strong oxidizing agent which he discovered in 1845. Fremy's salt is a long-lived free radical that finds use as a standard in electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy....
 in 1840, in saponified
Saponification

Saponification is the hydrolysis of an ester under base conditions to form an alcohol and the salt of a carboxylic acid . Saponification is commonly used to refer to the reaction of a metallic alkali with a fat or oil to form soap....
 palm oil. Butter
Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermentation cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications such as baking, sauce making, and frying....
, cheese
Cheese

Cheese is a food consisting of proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cattle, Water Buffalo, goats, or sheep's milk. It is produced by Coagulation of the milk protein casein....
, milk
Milk

Milk is an opaque white liquid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals . It provides the primary source of nutrition for newborn mammals before they are able to digestion other types of food....
 and meat
Meat

In modern English usage, meat most often refers to animal biological tissue used as food, mostly skeletal muscle and associated fat, but it may also refer to offal, including livers, skin, brains, bone marrow, kidneys, in some countries lungs, and a variety of other internal organs as well as blood....
 also contain this fatty acid.

Palmitate is a term for the salts or ester
Ester

An ester is an often Aroma compound organic chemistry or partially organic compound formed by the reaction between an acid and an alcohol or aromatic alcohol with the elimination of water....
s of palmitic acid. The palmitate anion is the observed form of palmitic acid at physiological pH.

Biochemistry

Palmitic acid is the first fatty acid produced during lipogenesis
Lipogenesis

Lipogenesis is the process by which simple sugars such as glucose are converted to fatty acids, which are subsequently Esterification with glycerol to form the Triglyceride that are packaged in Very low density lipoprotein and secreted from the liver....
 (fatty acid synthesis) and from which longer fatty acids can be produced. Palmitate negatively feeds back on acetyl-CoA carboxylase
Acetyl-CoA carboxylase

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase is a biotin-dependent enzyme that catalyzes the irreversible carboxylation of acetyl-CoA to produce malonyl-CoA through its two catalytic activities, biotin carboxylase and carboxyltransferase ....
 (ACC) which is responsible for converting acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA which is used to add to the growing acyl chain, thus preventing further palmitate generation.

Reduction of palmitic acid yields cetyl alcohol
Cetyl alcohol

Cetyl alcohol, also known as 1-hexadecanol and palmityl alcohol, is a solid organic compound with the chemical formula CH315OH....
.

Uses

Retinyl palmitate is an antioxidant
Antioxidant

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the Redox of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent....
 and a vitamin A
Vitamin A

Vitamin A, a bi-polar molecule formed with bi-polar covalent bonds between carbon and hydrogen, is linked to a family of similarly shaped molecules, the retinoids, which complete the remainder of the vitamin sequence....
 compound added to low-fat milk to replace the vitamin content lost through the removal of milk fat. Palmitate is attached to the alcohol form of vitamin A, retinol
Retinol

Retinol, the animal form of vitamin A, is a fat-soluble vitamin important in visual system and bone growth. It is also a Terpenoid. Retinol is among the most useable forms of vitamin A, which also include Retinal , Retinoic acid and retinyl ester ....
, in order to make vitamin A stable in milk.

Derivatives of palmitic acid were used in combination with naphtha
Naphtha

Naphtha normally refers to a number of different flammable liquid mixtures of hydrocarbons, i.e. a distillation product from petroleum or coal tar boiling in a certain range and containing certain hydrocarbons, a broad term encompassing any volatile, flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture....
 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 to produce napalm
Napalm

Napalm is the name given to any of a number of flammable liquids used in warfare, often jellied gasoline. Napalm is actually the thickener in such liquids, which when mixed with gasoline makes a sticky incendiary gel....
 (aluminum naphthenate and aluminum palmitate).

The World Health Organization
World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health....
 claims there is convincing evidence that dietary intake of palmitic acid increases risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. However, possibly less-disinterested studies have shown no ill effect, or even a favorable effect, of dietary consumption of palmitic acid on blood lipids and cardiovascular disease, so that the WHO
Who

*Who is an English language interrogative pronoun....
 finding may be deemed controversial. However, another study showed that palmitic acid has no hypercholesterolaemic effect if intake of linoleic acid is greater than 4.5% of energy. On the other hand, it was shown that, if the diet contains trans fatty acids, the health effects are negative, causing an LDL cholesterol increase and HDL cholesterol decrease.