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Q: Trans Fatty Acids ( Answered 4 out of 5 stars,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: Trans Fatty Acids
Category: Health > Fitness and Nutrition
Asked by: ssc3-ga
List Price: $2.00
Posted: 23 May 2006 08:45 PDT
Expires: 22 Jun 2006 08:45 PDT
Question ID: 731677
why is the trans in trans fat always in italics?
Answer  
Subject: Re: Trans Fatty Acids
Answered By: answerfinder-ga on 23 May 2006 09:20 PDT
Rated:4 out of 5 stars
 
Dear ssc3-ga,

trans and cis, are known as configurational prefixes. They are
chemistry terms which by convention are not capitalised and are shown
in italics.

Oxford Journals 
?Chemistry
General nomenclature. The IUPAC recommendations on chemical
nomenclature should be followed (IUPAC Compendium of Chemical
Terminology (1987, ISBN 0 632 01767 8, Blackwell Scientific
Publications, Oxford). All chemical names are run together except
those of acids, acetals, esters, ethers, glycosides, ketones and
salts, which are printed as separate words; hyphens are used to
separate numbers, Greek letters and some configurational prefixes,
e.g. p-nitrophenol. Italics are used for certain prefixes, e.g. cis-,
trans- and N. Small capitals are used for dextro- and laevo- prefixes,
e.g. L-glutamine.?
http://www.oxfordjournals.org/jac/for_authors/index.html


Biophysical Journal style sheet
"trans (cis and trans) (these terms are part of the chemical
configuration and thus are not capitalized at the start of a sentence
or in titles."
http://www.biophysj.org/misc/style.shtml

Canadian Food Inspection Agency
"Is the word "trans" always shown in italics?
By scientific convention the word "trans" is italicized when it
appears in sentences and general text."
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/inform/20050914e.shtml



What are trans and cis? You can read more on these pages. 

trans
?In chemistry, a bond not subject to free rotation in which the
greater radical on both ends is on the opposite side of the bond is
called trans.?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans

cis
?In chemistry, a double bond (or ring) in which the greater radical on
both ends is on the same side of the bond (or face of the ring) is
called cis.?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cis


I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder

Search strategy
trans italics
trans italics cis
"configurational prefixes" trans
ssc3-ga rated this answer:4 out of 5 stars
Thank you for your help! It's exactly what I found too!

Comments  
Subject: Re: Trans Fatty Acids
From: magnesium-ga on 23 May 2006 12:36 PDT
 
This is an excellent answer. It seems to be to be worth five stars.

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