Heptadecanoic acid
- N- heptadecanoic
- Daturinsäure
Colorless leaflets
Fixed
59-61 ° C
364 ° C
Attention
Template: Infobox chemical / molecular formula search available
The margaric (via French from Greek acidic margarique μάργαρον, Margaron or μαργαρίτης, MARGARITES "Pearl " ), according to IUPAC n- heptadecanoic acid, belongs to the group of alkanoic acids. It is a saturated fatty acid having an odd number of carbon atoms, namely 17
History
It was named this combination of Michel Eugène Chevreul, the French chemist. Investigations on the hydrolysis of lard with potash in 1814 he thought he had discovered a new fatty acid. This compound, which presented itself in the form of pearly shiny crystals, he called, in reference to the Greek word Margaron ( "Pearl " ), as acidic margarique (hence then the neologism oleo " margarine ").
Was investigated in more detail the margaric, besides oleic acid, by the German chemist Franz Varrentrapp during his PhD with Justus von Liebig. Also Liebig mentioned margaric several times in his " chemical letters ". He writes about it in the 19th letter:
"So were most corpses, appears to, turned into fat in the laying of the churchyard of the Innocent from the interior of the city before the gates of Paris. The substance of the skin, muscles, cells and tendon had completely disappeared to the bone, only the decay longest -resistant fat of the corpses had remained as margaric, by which time hundreds of cwt were processed by the soap -boilers in Paris lights and soap. "
Only at the beginning of the 20th century turned out that the compound previously described as margaric is not a pure substance but a mixture of palmitic and stearic acid.
Occurrence
For a long time it was assumed that margaric in nature does not occur because only fatty acids with an even number of carbon atoms could be isolated. This conjecture was disproved in 1957, was isolated as margaric of butterfat. However, it is found in nature only rarely and only in low concentration, mainly in beef tallow to about 2 weight percent.
Production and representation
Probably the first description of the synthesis of margaric in the laboratory is from the year 1958.