Behenic acid

Behenic acid, also called docosanoic acid, is a saturated fatty acid with a 22-carbon chain. It occurs in some plant oils and is used in cosmetics and industrial products.

Fatty acid: A carboxylic acid with a hydrocarbon chain, found in fats and other lipids. Behenic acid is one member of this broad chemical family.
Melting point: The temperature at which a solid becomes a liquid under specified pressure. Behenic acid’s long, straight saturated chains contribute to its relatively high melting point.
Moringa oil: A plant oil pressed from seeds of Moringa oleifera, rich in oleic acid and containing behenic acid. Its historical name, ben oil, is associated with behenic acid.
Dietary fat: Fat consumed in food, providing energy and essential fatty acids and aiding nutrient absorption. Behenic acid can enter the body as a minor component of dietary fats.
Saturated fat: A fat whose fatty-acid chains contain no carbon–carbon double bonds. Behenic acid’s chain has no carbon–carbon double bonds.
Van der Waals force: An attractive interaction between atoms or molecules arising from temporary or permanent charge distributions. Long hydrocarbon chains make stronger cumulative dispersion contacts when packed together.
Peanut oil: A vegetable oil extracted from peanuts and used in foods and other products. Peanut oil is one dietary and commercial source of behenic acid.
Fatty acid oxidation: Metabolic pathways that break fatty acids down to generate energy. The body can metabolize behenic acid through fatty-acid breakdown pathways.
Docosanoic acid: The systematic name for the saturated, straight-chain fatty acid with 22 carbon atoms. This is the systematic name used interchangeably with behenic acid.
Fatty acid synthesis: A biochemical pathway that builds fatty-acid chains from acetyl and malonyl units. Elongation of shorter fatty acids can produce behenic acid in organisms.

Linked from 1 page