Caprylic acid

Caprylic acid is an eight-carbon saturated fatty acid. Empirical formula for caprylic acid is C8H16O2. It occurs as a normal constituent of fats and oils in various foods.

It naturally found in palm and coconut oil a in the milk of humans and bovines. Along with butyric and lauric acid, it constitutes a major proportion of naturally occurring saturated fats and oils.

Caprylic acid is classified as a medium-chain fatty acid and is chemically known as octanoic acid. It is colorless leaf or oily liq.; unpleasant odor; burning rancid taste.

Caprylic acid is commercially manufactured by the oxidation of octanol. It can also be synthesized from 1-heptene. The U.S Food and Drug Administration has approved caprylic acid with “generally recognizable as safe” GRAS status.
Caprylic acid

Saturated fat in food

Saturated fats mainly found in animal foods – meats, whole milk, and cheese. Some vegetable fats such as coconut and palm and hydrogenated fats provide smaller amounts of saturated fats.

Coconut oil contains as much as 92 percent saturated fats – more that any other oil, including beef fat and lard.

In the 1950s and 1960s when saturated fats was first being associated with elevated cholesterol, researchers began looking for other effects caused by saturated fat.

High intakes of saturated fats contribute most of high blood low density lipoprotein LDL cholesterol. It contributed to heart disease, obesity and other health problems.

Most notable among the saturated fatty acids that raise blood cholesterol are lauric, myristic and palmitic acids.

A fatty acid molecule that has two hydrogen atoms attacked to each carbon is said to be ‘saturated’ with hydrogen because it is holding all the hydrogen atoms it possibly can. This fatty acid is called a saturated fat. 

Generally foods that high in saturated fats content are solid at room temperature.
Saturated fat in food