Glyoxylic acid Glyoxylic acid Glyoxylic acid or oxoacetic acid is an organic compound. Together with acetic acid, glycolic acid, and oxalic acid, glyoxylic acid is one of the C carboxylic acids. It is a colourless solid that occurs naturally and is useful industrially. Glyoxylic acid is usually described with the chemical formula OCHCOH, i.e. containing an aldehyde functional group (see image in upper right). The aldehyde in fact is not observed in solution or as a solid. As seen for many other aldehydes, it exists most commonly as the hydrate. Thus, the formula for glyoxylic acid is really (HO)CHCOH, described as the
Chemical compound of atoms (chemical elements) in a fixed stoichiometric proportion can be termed a "chemical compound"; the concept is most readily understood when considering pure chemical substances. It follows from their being composed of fixed proportions of two or more types of atoms that chemical compounds can be converted, via chemical reaction, into compounds or substances each having fewer atoms. The ratio of each element in the compound is expressed in a ratio in its chemical formula. A chemical formula is a way of expressing information about the proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound, using the standard abbreviations