Talk:Linolenic acid

Info about the dietary sources.....
--222.67.208.221 (talk) 06:44, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * http://scholar.google.com.hk/scholar?hl=en&q=linolenic+wholemeal&btnG=Search&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=&as_vis=0

Beta linoleic acid?
These names, begining with Greek letters, seem to imply that there is also a substance with name beta linolenic acid (or β linolenic acid). However, I have not found any information of it from any source, not even with Google. This is only a guess, but: Perhaps that is because it is rare and it has not, or is not known to have, any important physiological or nutritional significance, at least not to humans. And therefore it perhaps is known only to some few chemists. Does anyone know something of it? Does it even exist? -FKLS (talk) 21:12, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

What they really mean when they really don't know
I have removed the statement The unmodified term linolenic acid most commonly refers to this substance." from under the link to alpha linolenic acid. Because it is difficult to separate alpha linolenate from gamma linolenate (usually in the form of the methyl esters), the sum of the concentrations of the two is usually reported, as "linolenic acid" or "linolenate."  Because no attempt has been made to separate the two, the isomeric composition is not known and the reference is not exclusively to either one of the two isomers.  That is, "the unmodified term linolenic acid" does not "most commonly refer" to either one of the substances alone, but to a binary mixture of unknown quantitative composition.

because it causes DPL bot to flag links to linolenic acid as requiring disambiguation even though what is meant is the mixture. - Rod57 (talk) 22:51, 19 August 2012 (UTC)