Published On Sep 26, 2022
The naming of fatty acids describes the length of the chain and both the number and placement of the double bonds. Subscribe to Nourishable at / nourishable
This video is part 3 of the Lipid Foundations module within a lecture series on the nutrition science of macronutrients.
Lipid Foundations Lecture playlist: • Lipid Foundations
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References
Chapter 4 - Lipids, Sterols, and their Metabolites in Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 2014 (Editors: Ross, Caballero, Cousins, Tucker and Ziegler; 11 edition)
Images modified from By Wolfgang Schaefer, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Fatty acids have a specific way that they’re named. Different nomenclature is used in biochemistry and nutrition compared to chemistry. Names describe how many carbons, how many double bonds, and where the double bonds are. In biochemical naming, carbon counting starts at the methyl end. The term omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet and in fatty acid naming tells you how many carbons away from the methyl end you are. In the literature sometimes omega is referred to a “n”, so omega fatty acids are sometimes called your “n6 fatty acids”. In chemistry naming, carbon counting starts at the carboxyl end and uses the Greek letter delta to tell you how many carbons away from the carboxyl end the double bonds exist.
