Psyllic acid (also pysslostearic acid, tritriacontanoic acid or ceromelissic acid) is a

saturated fatty acid A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone and fatty acids that each contain a long linear or branched c ...

. The rare fatty acid occurs in insect waxes, in the wax of wax scale insects, in the propolis of bees and bumblebees and in a few plants. Its name is derived from the alder leaf flea (''

Psylla alni ''Psylla alni'' is a species of psyllid, a plant-feeding hemipteran in the family Psyllidae. Distribution This species is present in the Palearctic realm (from Europe to Siberia and Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Caucasus) and in the Nearctic realm (Ca ...

'').

Alkali salts

The alkali

salts In chemistry, a salt is a chemical compound consisting of an ionic assembly of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions, which results in a compound with no net electric charge. A common example is table salt, with positively cha ...

of psyllic acid are precipitated when alcoholic solutions of the acid and an

alkali hydroxide The alkali hydroxides are a class of chemical compounds which are composed of an alkali metal cation and the hydroxide anion (OH−). The alkali hydroxides are: *Lithium hydroxide (LiOH) *Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) *Potassium hydroxide (KOH) *Rubidiu ...

are mixed. The silver and barium salts can be obtained by adding aqueous alcoholic solutions of

silver nitrate Silver nitrate is an inorganic compound with chemical formula . It is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography. It is far less sensitive to light than the halides. It was once called ''lunar caustic' ...

and

barium chloride Barium chloride is an inorganic compound with the formula Ba Cl2. It is one of the most common water-soluble salts of barium. Like most other water-soluble barium salts, it is white, highly toxic, and imparts a yellow-green coloration to a flame. ...

to alcoholic solutions of the acid. The following salts have been analyzed: C₃₃H₆₅O₂Na, C₆₆H₁₃₀O₄Ba, and C₃₃H₆₅O₂Ag. Psylla wax is

hydrolyzed Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water is the nucleophile. Biological hydrolysis ...

by alcoholic

potassium hydroxide Potassium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the formula K OH, and is commonly called caustic potash. Along with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), KOH is a prototypical strong base. It has many industrial and niche applications, most of which exp ...

as well as by

hydrobromic acid Hydrobromic acid is a strong acid formed by dissolving the diatomic molecule hydrogen bromide (HBr) in water. "Constant boiling" hydrobromic acid is an aqueous solution that distills at and contains 47.6% HBr by mass, which is 8.77 mol/L. H ...

.Psylla Wax. IV. Psyllic Acid and its Salts. Ernst E. Sundvik (Zeitsch. physiol. Chem., 1908, 54, 255-257. Compare Abstr., 1898, i, 617; 1901, i, 358; 190, i, 887)

Nutritional sources

Psyllic acid is present in Chinese wolfberries.

References

External links

Psyllic acid
at the ''Nature Lipidomics Gateway'' {{Fatty acids Fatty acids Alkanoic acids

Alkali salts

Nutritional sources

See also

References

External links