Fatty acids in plants

Drugs of particularly complex structure are often prepared commercially by partial synthesis from some abundant, structurally related, natural product obtained from plants. The majority i)f steroid drugs are in fact prepared in just this way. Prostaglandins are unique in that no prostanoid compounds have yet been found in plants, a perhaps surprising finding in view of the wide distribution of essential fatty acids in plant materials. 

Hexadecanoic Palmitic C16 0 Most common saturated fatty acid in plants and animals... 

Lipoxygenases catalyze oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids in plant lipids. Within animal tissues the lipoxygenase-catalyzed reaction of arachidonic acid with 02 is the first step in formation of Ieukotrienes and other mediators of inflammation. These reactions are discussed in Chapter 21. 

Shorland, F. B., The Distribution of Fatty Acids in Plant Lipids, in... 

Bao XM, Katz S, Pollard M, Ohlrogge J. Carbocyclic fatty acids in plants biochemical and molecular genetic characterization of cyclopropane fatty acid synthesis of Sterculia foetida. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2002 99 7171-7177. 

Table III. Relative Abundances of Fatty Acids in Plant Samples...

Fig. 2.13 Biosynthesis of saturated fatty acids in plants and animals. Palmitate is formed by successive additions of malonyl coenzyme A to the enzyme-bound chain, with C02 being lost at each addition.This results in chain elongation by a (CH2)2 unit at each step. Details of the formation of butyryl (C4) from acetyl (C2) are shown, while the subsequent six further additions, terminating in palmitate, proceed similarly.

Although the most common unsaturated fatty acids in plants are derived from oleic acid, a wide range of unusual fatty acids are found in the seed oils of different species. Divergent plastid acyl-ACP desaturases have been shown to account for some of this diversity. For example, Coriandrum sativum achieves seed oils rich in A -18 1 (pet-roselinic acid) by desaturation of 16 0 at the A position followed by elongation, while Thunbergia alata attains a similar oil by direct A -desaturation of 16 0. A single acyl-ACP desaturase from Hedera helix can even produce A -dienes (E. Whittle, 2005). 

One of the major non-food uses of vegetable oils (approximately 5(X) million pounds of oil per annum in the US) is the production of soaps, detergents, and other surfactants. The solubility and other physical properties of medium-chain fatty acids and their derivatives make them especially suited for surfactant manufacture. Coconut and palm kernel oils, which contain 40-60% lauric acid (12 0), are current major feedstocks for the surfactant industry. The mechanism of synthesis of lauric and other medium-chain fatty acids in plants involves the action of a medium-chain acyl-ACP thioesterase which terminates fatty acid synthesis after a 10 or 12 carbon chain has been assembled (M. Pollard,... 

Bonaventure, G., Salas, J.J., Pollard, M.R., Ohlrogge, J.B. 2003. Disruption of the FATB gene in Arabidopsis demonstrates an essential role of saturated fatty acids in plant growth. Plant Cell 15 1020-1033. 

Accumulation of Epoxy Fatty Acids in Plant Oils... 

Production of Industrial Fatty Acids in Plants A Microbial Example.137... 

PRODUCTION OF INDUSTRIAL FATTY ACIDS IN PLANTS A MICROBIAL EXAMPLE... 

Wu G, Truksa M, Datla N, Vrinten P, Bauer J, Zank T, Cirpus P, Heinz E, Qiu X. (2005) Stepwise engineering to produce high yields of very long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in plants. Nat Biotechnol 23 1013-1017. 

Table I. Major Fatty Acids in Plants and Animals...

Fatty acids in plants are synthesized from acetate in the chloroplasts of leaf cells and the plastids of seeds. In leaf cells there are active desaturase... 

Synthesis of fatty acids in plants has been the principal subject of a number of recent reviews (1, 2, he properties of acyl... 

Oxylaiins. Collective name for oxygen derivatives of fatty acids, especially hydroperoxy and hydroxy fatty acids, formed by the action of mono- or dioxygenases on polyene fatty acids in plants and animals. The O. include not only the eicosanoids (with 20 C atoms) but also similar compounds with more or less carbon atoms (e. g. octadecanoids with 18 C atoms). 

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