Palmitic acid World War II to produce napalm. The word "napalm" is derived from the words naphthenic acid and palmitic acid. Palmitic acid was discovered by Edmond Frémy in 1840, in saponified palm oil. This remains the primary industrial route for its production, with the triglycerides (fats) in palm oil being hydrolysed by high temperature water (above ), and the resulting mixture fractionally distilled to give the pure product. Palmitic acid is naturally produced by a wide range of other plants and organisms, typically at low levels. It is naturally present in butter, cheese, milk, and meat, as well as cocoa butter,
Naphthenic acid concentration of 81 mg/l. Using Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD] protocols for testing toxicity, McKee et al. (2014) argued that based on their studies refined NAs when consumed orally were not acutely genotoxic to mammals. However, damage induced by NAs while transient in acute or discontinuous exposure, may be cumulative in repeated exposure. Naphthenic acid Naphthenic acids (NAs) are a mixture of several cyclopentyl and cyclohexyl carboxylic acids with molecular weight of 120 to well over 700 atomic mass units. The main fraction are carboxylic acids with a carbon backbone of 9 to 20 carbons. McKee et al.