2. Nomenclature and naming of fatty acids

In addition to their common names, fatty acids have systematic names based on their structure. Linolenic acid, for example, is the common name for the fatty acid that has a linear chain of 18 carbon atoms containing 3 double bonds, and whose systematic name "octadecatrienoic acid" is built on "octadeca" and "trién", meaning "18" and "3 double bonds" respectively. The suffix "oic" specifies, according to the official acid nomenclature, the presence of a carboxyl radical – CO ₂ H. The position of each double bond is given by the number of the carbon atom closest to the carboxyl group. In the numbering of carbon atoms, the carbon of the carboxyl group carries the number 1. Linolenic acid is thus called "octadeca-9,12,15-trienoic acid". To specify the configuration of each double bond, the name contains a prefix of Latin origin "cis" or "trans",...