Demospongic Acids Revisited

Abstract

The well-known fatty acids with a D5,9 unsaturation system were designated for a long period as demospongic acids, taking into account that they originally occurred in marine Demospongia sponges. However, such acids have also been observed in various marine sources with a large range of chain-lengths (C16–C32) and from some terrestrial plants with short acyl chains (C18–C19). Finally, the D5,9 fatty acids appear to be a particular type of non-methylene-interrupted fatty acids (NMA FAs). This article reviews the occurrence of these particular fatty acids in marine and terrestrial organisms and shows the biosynthetic connections between D5,9 fatty acids and other NMI FAs.

Keywords

• demospongic acids
• marine lipids
• sponges
• marine invertebrates
• non-methylene interrupted fatty acids