Punicic acid
Punicic acid is a polyunsaturated fatty acid, 18:3 cis-9, trans-11, cis-13. It is named for the pomegranate,, and is obtained from pomegranate seed oil.
It is also found in the seed oils of snake gourd.
Punicic acid is a conjugated linolenic acid or CLnA; i.e. it has three conjugated double bonds. It is chemically similar to the conjugated linoleic acids, or CLA, which have two. It has been erroneous classified as "n-5" or "omega-5" polyunsaturated fatty acid because the last double bond is located five carbons from the terminal "omega" carbon, but the "n-x" notation can only be applied to all cis, methylene-interrupted polyunsaturated fatty acids ^source?.
In lab rats, punicic acid was converted to the CLA rumenic acid. In vitro, it shows anticancer activity against prostate cancer cells. OLETF rats—a strain which becomes obese—remained relatively lean when punicic acid was added to their feed.
