Fatty acid coverage

[Anonymous]

The Component Thesaurus contains terms for fatty acids defined to various levels of structural specificity.  For example, in version 1.2, the general term for fatty acid 18:1 [F18:1; octadecenoic acid] has 26 more specific terms, mostly for the possible combinations of positional and geometric isomerism, e.g. fatty acid 18:1 n-7 trans [F18:1TN7; vaccenic acid].  Similarly, the general term for di-unsaturated C₁₈ fatty acids (F18:2) has 10 more specific terms, ranging from precise entries such as fatty acid 18:2 n-6 cis,cis [F18:2CN6; linoleic acid] through well-defined totals such as fatty acid 18:2 trans [F18:2TRS] to ill-defined totals such as fatty acid 18:2 remainder [F18:2R].  Both F18:3 and F18:4 have pairs of terms such as F18:xCN3 and F18:xN3, one specifying all-cis and the other not.

Are all these terms necessary for the core fatty acids mentioned above?  Which types of term are necessary to describe data reported for other fatty acids, in particular to provide correct structural detail for polyunsaturates?  Policies are needed to determine which terms are required, taking into account the level of detail available from analytical studies.  These policies can be discussed within this forum topic, together with suggestions for new fatty acid terms to be added to the Component Thesaurus.

 

For discussions of the coding policies used to define the component identifers for fatty acids, see the topic Fatty acid identifiers.

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