Question

A saturated fatty acid is
(A) With no double bond
(B) High melting point
(C) Low melting point
(D) Both A and B

Answer 1

Hint: Fatty acids are defined as the carboxylic acid with an even number of carbon atoms. These are the long aliphatic chains. They may be saturated fatty acid or the unsaturated fatty acid and straight or branched chain with the carboxyl group at the one end of the fatty acid.

Complete Answer:
1) Unsaturated fatty acid: These fatty acids have at least one double bond between the carbon atoms. They are liquid at room temperature, so they have very low boiling point.
- These are classified into two types as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acid.
- Example for the unsaturated fatty acid is vegetable oils like olive oil, fish oil, sunflower oil etc.

2) Saturated fatty acid: The saturated fatty acids are stable and are short chain fatty acids. When the hydrogen reacts with the unsaturated fatty acid, all the double bonds are converted into the single bonds.
- As the name signifies all the double bond breaks to the single bond which is saturated with the hydrogen. Hence these saturated fats are solid at room temperature and hence they possess very high boiling point.
- The examples for saturated fat are butter, animal fat and animal products.

Thus, the correct option is (D).

Note: Unsaturated fatty acids are good for health since they stabilize heartbeat, improve good cholesterol level in the body and make the inflammation process easy. Where saturated fats increase bad cholesterol in blood thus leads to many heart diseases and stroke.