Polyunsaturated fatty acids in the context of "Mare milk"

Walnut oil is oil extracted from walnuts, Juglans regia. The oil contains polyunsaturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, and saturated fats.

In biochemistry and nutrition, a monounsaturated fat is a fat which contains a monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), a subclass of fatty acid characterized by having a double bond in the fatty acid chain with all of the remaining carbon atoms being single-bonded. By contrast, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have more than one double bond.

Omega−6 fatty acids (also referred to as ω−6 fatty acids or n−6 fatty acids) are a family of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) that share a final carbon-carbon double bond in the n−6 position, that is, the sixth bond, counting from the methyl end. Health and medical organizations recommend intake of omega−6 fatty acids as part of healthful dietary patterns.

Lipid peroxidation, or lipid oxidation, is a complex chemical process that leads to oxidative degradation of lipids, resulting in the formation of peroxide and hydroperoxide derivatives. It occurs when free radicals, specifically reactive oxygen species (ROS), interact with lipids within cell membranes, typically polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) as they have carbon–carbon double bonds. This reaction leads to the formation of lipid radicals, collectively referred to as lipid peroxides or lipid oxidation products (LOPs), which in turn react with other oxidizing agents, leading to a chain reaction that results in oxidative stress and cell damage.

In pathology and medicine, lipid peroxidation plays a role in cell damage which has broadly been implicated in the pathogenesis of various diseases and disease states, including ageing, whereas in food science lipid peroxidation is one of many pathways to rancidity.