00:01
In this problem, we want to find out if triglycerides have a chiral center.
00:05
I've drawn out the general structure of a triglyceride here, where we have three carbon atoms, c1, c2, and c3 on the backbone of the triglyceride.
00:17
They're attached to three fatty acids.
00:21
Let's label them f1, f2, and f3.
00:28
And remember that in order to achieve a chiral center, we have to have a central carbon atom that is singly bonded to four different side groups.
00:39
Now, if we look at c1, we see that it's bonded directly to two hydrogen groups, and this is also the case for c3.
00:47
Because of the identical bonding to the same hydrogen group, c1 and c3 can by definition not be chiral centers.
00:57
Therefore, c2 is the only candidate to be a chiral center.
01:00
But remember, it has to have four different groups bonded to it.
01:05
So let's count them out...