Background
Some n−9s are common components of animal fat and vegetable oil. Two n−9 fatty acids important in industry are:
- Oleic acid (18:1, n−9), which is a main component of olive oil and other monounsaturated fats
- Erucic acid (22:1, n−9), which is found in rapeseed, wallflower seed, and mustard seed. Rapeseed with high erucic acid content is grown for commercial use in paintings and coatings as a drying oil. Canola oil comes from a cultivar of the rapeseed plant that has been bred, or in some cases genetically modified, to contain very little erucic acid.
Unlike n−3 and n−6 fatty acids, n−9 fatty acids are not classed as essential fatty acids (EFA). This is both because they can be created by the human body from unsaturated fat, and are therefore not essential in the diet, and because the lack of an n−6 double bond keeps them from participating in the reactions that form the eicosanoids.
Under severe conditions of EFA deprivation, mammals will elongate and desaturate oleic acid to make mead acid, (20:3, n−9). This has been documented to a lesser extent in one study following vegans, vegetarians and semi vegetarians who followed unbalanced diets.
| Common name | Lipid name | Chemical name |
|---|---|---|
| oleic acid | 18:1 (n−9) | 9-octadecenoic acid |
| elaidic acid | 18:1 (n−9) | (E)-octadec-9-enoic acid |
| gondoic acid | 20:1 (n−9) | 11-eicosenoic acid |
| mead acid | 20:3 (n−9) | 5,8,11-eicosatrienoic acid |
| erucic acid | 22:1 (n−9) | 13-docosenoic acid |
| nervonic acid | 24:1 (n−9) | 15-tetracosenoic acid |
Read more about this topic: Omega-9 Fatty Acid
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)