Fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with a long aliphatic chain, which is either saturated or unsaturated. Most of the naturally occurring fatty acids contain unbranched chain of an even number of carbon atoms, from 4 to 28. We usually derived fatty acids from triglycerides or phospholipids. Fatty acids are very important sources of fuel because, when they metabolized, they yield large amount of ATP .Fatty acids are regulated by certain transcription factors which control the action of genes which synthesize the fatty acids as well as cholesterol inside the body
TYPE OF FATTY ACID
I. ON THE BASIS OF NATURE OF COMPOUND
I. TRIGLYCERIDES
II. PHOSPHOLIPID
III. CHOLESTEROL
TRIGLYCERIDES
A triglycerides are the esters derived from glycerol …show more content…
The chain lengths of the fatty acids in naturally occurring triglycerides vary, but most contain 16, 18, or 20 carbon atoms. Natural fatty acids found in plants and animals are typically composed of only even numbers of carbon atoms, reflecting the pathway for their biosynthesis from the two-carbon building-block acetyl CoA. Bacteria, however, possess the ability to synthesize odd- and branched-chain fatty acids. As a result, ruminant animal fat contains odd-number of fatty acids, such as 15, due to this action of bacteria in the …show more content…
"Unsaturated" refers to the fact that the molecules contain less than the maximum amount of hydrogen. These materials exist as cis or trans isomers depending on the geometry of the double bond.
TWO TYPE OF POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACID
I. OMEGA 3 FATTY ACID
II. OMEGA 6 FATTY ACID
OMEGA 3 FATTY ACID
Omega-3 fatty acids — also called ω-3 fatty acids or n-3 fatty acids[1] — arepolyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) with a double bond (C=C) at the third carbon atom from the end of the carbon chain.[2] The fatty acids have two ends, the carboxylic acid (-COOH) end, which is considered the beginning of the chain, thus "alpha", and the methyl (CH3) end, which is considered the "tail" of the chain, thus "omega". The way in which a fatty acid is named is determined by the location of the first double bond, counted from themethyl end, that is, the omega (ω-) or the n- end.
The three types of omega-3 fatty acids involved in human physiology are
I. α-linolenic acid (ALA) (found in plant oils),
II. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and
III. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)(both commonly found in marine