Heptadecanoic acid

A saturated carboxylic acid built from seventeen carbon atoms — also called margaric acid, with the synonyms margarinic acid and n-heptadecylic acid — melting at about 59–61 °C. It occurs naturally both as a free fatty acid and as a lipid component of animal and vegetable fats, usually in modest amounts. Food chemists meet it mainly as a minor constituent when profiling the fatty-acid composition of oils, fats, and lipid extracts, where its odd carbon number makes it a useful marker in chromatographic analysis. Although not nutritionally prominent, it belongs to the broader family of saturated fatty acids whose levels in foods are of interest in dietary and labelling studies.