Myristic acid is a saturated fatty acid with 14 carbon atoms, therefore known as tetradecanoic acid. Myristic acid therefore belongs to the category of long-chain fatty acids.
The name comes from Myristica fragrans, tropical tree from whose seeds nutmeg is obtained.
The little edifying capacity of enhancing the atherogenic effect of cholesterol, increasing its plasma levels, is attributed to myristic acid; this characteristic, in fact, is not up to all saturated fats, but only to some. Excluding for their metabolic peculiarity those with shorter chain (which together with stearic have little effect on cholesterolemia), the greatest atherogenic power is attributed to "palmitic acid," stearic acid and "lauric acid (although the latter" by increasing the good cholesterol more than the bad, it has recently shown interesting protective properties on cardiovascular diseases).
The graph opposite shows the effects of replacing one percent of daily calories from carbohydrates with one percent of calories provided by related fatty acids. We note, as anticipated, the hypercholesterolemic effect of myristic acid, which increases the total cholesterol by raising above all the LDL fraction (bad cholesterol).
