Posts Tagged ‘pitaya’
January 8th, 2016 by Dr. Hannah Sivak
What is a fatty acid? A fatty acid (example: palmitic acid) has a carboxylic acid attached to a long hydrocarbon chain. Why are fatty acids so important? Fatty acids are used as a major source of energy during metabolism and as a starting point for the synthesis of phospholipids, the main category of lipid molecules used to construct biological membranes (generally composed of two fatty acids linked through glycerol phosphate to one of a variety of polar groups). Why are the differences in chemical structure so important? The chemical structure makes the function possible. Stearic acid cannot do what linoleic acid can. Fatty acids can differ in number of carbon…