Napalm Napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The title is a portmanteau of the names of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: co-precipitated aluminium salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids. Napalm B is the more modern version of napalm (utilizing styrene derivatives) and, although distinctly different in its chemical composition, is often referred to simply as "napalm". Napalm was originally developed in 1942 in a secret laboratory at Harvard University, by a team led by chemist Louis Fieser under the United States
Divinylether fatty acids linoleic acid) and colnelenicacid (from linolenic acid), could be also produced in potato leaves and tomato roots by rearrangement of 9-hydroperoxides. Isomers of colneleic and colnelenic acids were isolated from homogenates of leaves of Clematis vitalba (Ranunculaceae). Similarly, 13-lipoxygenase-generated hydroperoxides serve as precursor of other divinyl ether fatty acids which are produced in bulbs of garlic or Ranunculus leaves. These compounds were named etheroleic and etherolenic acids. Etheroleic acid has systematic name 12-[1′E-hexenyloxy]-9Z,11Z-dodecadienoic acid. Etherolenic acid has systematic name (9Z,11E,1'E,3'Z)-12-(1',3'-Hexadienyloxy)-9,11-dodecadienoic acid. The physiological significance of divinyl ethers is still not fully studied. As infection of potato leaves leads to increased