Erucic acid

The erucic acid (also: erucic acid) is a naturally occurring, monounsaturated (1 double bond) fatty acid with the molecular formula C22H42O2. It is a white amorphous mass with a melting point of 34C°. The erucic acid is insoluble in water, soluble in ethanol and ether.

In nature, the acid occurs as glycerol ester in the oleum rapae (rub oil), in the fatty oil of mustard seeds(mustard oil), in grape seed oil and in cod liver oil. Brassidic acid, which is not found in nature, is stereoisomeric to erucic acid.

Erucic acid is used to produce emulsifiers, surface-active substances and other chemicals; for example, it is added to lubricants.

Erucaic acid is broken down in the human organism much less efficiently than other fatty acids. Like other long-chain fatty acids, erucic acid probably blocks some of the enzymes involved in the breakdown of fatty acids, so that erucic acid itself, like other fatty acids, is broken down more slowly. Since erucic acid is thus nutritionally problematic (pathological changes in the heart muscle, fatty deposits in the heart), rapeseed was not previously used to produce edible oil (rapeseed oil). In the meantime, varieties of rapeseed low in erucic acid (0.1 to 1.5 %) are available. These are known as "0 and 00 rapeseed" (also called LEAR = low erucic acid rapeseed).