Heptadecanoic

Heptadecanoic refers to a chemical compound or a characteristic related to the number seventeen. In chemistry, it most commonly refers to heptadecanoic acid, also known as margaric acid. This is a saturated fatty acid with the chemical formula CH3(CH2)15COOH. It consists of a seventeen-carbon chain with a carboxyl group at one end. Heptadecanoic acid is found in small amounts in animal and vegetable fats and oils. It is an odd-numbered fatty acid, which are less common than even-numbered fatty acids in biological systems.

The term "heptadecanoic" can also be used more broadly to describe any molecule or structure containing seventeen units of a particular component. For example, in organic chemistry, a heptadecanoate would be a salt or ester of heptadecanoic acid. The number seventeen itself has various significances in different contexts, but in scientific nomenclature, it is often used to denote the presence of seventeen carbon atoms in a chain or ring.