Triacylglycerol and Fatty Acid

Triacylglycerol
 Also Called triglycerides are the main dietary fats in human body
 triglycerides are alcohol glycerol (hydroxyl group HO-) and Three Fatty
Acid(Carboxyl group COOH)
 Categorized as simple lipids
 FATS and OILS are called triglycerides because they are esters composed of
three fatty acid and one glycerol
FATS OILS
- Saturated Fatty acid - Unsaturated Fatty acid
- Solid at room temperature - liquid at room temperature
- obtain from animals - obtain from plants

Structure of Triacylglycerol

Fatty Acid
 Fatty acids are also called “Carboxylic acids” due to the presence of carboxyl
group (-COOH)
 Building blocks for triglycerides and phospholipids
 general formula , CH3(CH2)nCOOH where usually ranges from 2 to 28 and is
always an even number
fatty acids are classified into different categories, i.e.
 According to the chain length
 According to the body requirement
 According to the degree of unsaturation
 According to the position of H-atoms
  According to the chain length
1. Short chain fatty acids
 Fatty acids with <6 C-atoms
 liquid at room temperature.
 example, Butyric acid (C-4)
2. Medium chain fatty acids
 Fatty acids with 6-12 C-atoms
 example, Caproic acid (C-6), Caprylic acid (C-8)
3 Long chain fatty acids
 Fatty acids with 14-20 C-atoms
 Found as a major part of a few vegetable oils.
 For example, Myristic fatty acid (C-14), Palmitic acid (C-16), etc.
4. Very long chain fatty acids
 Fatty acids with 22 or more C-atoms
 These fatty acids can’t be metabolized by mitochondria, they are metabolized in
peroxisomes.
These may be physio pathologically harmful for human.
 For example, Erucic acid (C-22)
 According to the body requirement
 Essential fatty acids
fatty acids that cannot be prepared by the body and are obtained from diet.
example, linoleic acid(Omega 6), linolenic acid (Omega3), arachidonic acid.
 Non-Essential fatty acids
Fatty acids that can be synthesized by our body and are not required from
diet. For example, Palmitic acid, Stearic acid.
 According to the degree of unsaturation
Saturated fatty acid
 the fatty acids that contain no double bond their hydrocarbon chain.
 They are solid at room temperature.
 Examples Butyric acid, Caproic acid, Lauric acid 12:0, Myristic acid 14:0,
Palmitic acid 16:0, Stearic acid 18:0
Unsaturated fatty acids
 the fatty acids that contain one or more double bond in their aliphatic chain.
 Abundant in fish and vegetable oils
These may either be
 Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) Has one double bond
 Poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) Has two or more double bond
 According to the position of H-atoms
 Cis-Fatty acids
Cis- fatty acids are the fatty acids in which the adjacent hydrogen atoms are
attached on the same side of the double bond. The chain with a significant no. cis-
bonds, tend to be slightly curved.
 Trans-Fatty acid
Trans-Fatty acids are the fatty acids in which H-atoms are attached on the
opposite sides of the double bond. The chain with a significant no. of Trans-fatty
acids, don’t bend much and maintain the shape.

NOMENCLATURE OF FATTY ACID

 Delta nomenclature
 Omega nomenclature
 Systematic nomenclature

Delta nomenclature
 The delta ∆ system the notation describe the chain length and the number and
position of the double bonds
 In delta numbering start from the carboxyl end of the fatty acid
Omega nomenclature
 Similar to delta nomenclature.
 Carbon atoms are counted from the methyl end.
 Symbol used is omega instead of delta.
 For omega nomenclature we need to know 3 things.
1. Total carbon atoms in the fatty acids.
2. Total double bonds in the fatty acids.
3. Number of carbon atoms are counted from the methyl end to the carbon with
first double bond.

• Total no. of carbon atoms= 18

• Total no. of double bonds= 1
• No. of carbon atoms starting from the methyl end to the carbon with first double
bond= 9
In case of saturated fatty acid, we don’t write the omega nomenclature at the end of the
name but if there is a saturated fatty acids with 18 carbon atom, then the name would
be 18:0
Systematic nomenclature
 is similar to the IUPAC nomenclature.
–oic (in case of saturated fatty acids)
–enoic (in case of unsaturated fatty acids with single double bond),
-dienoic, –trienoic (in case of unsaturated fatty acids with more than one carbon)
For example:
a. no double bond, octadecanoic acid
b. one double bond, octadecenoic acid.
c. two double bonds, octadecadienoic acid.
d. three double bonds, octadecatrienoic acid.