Margaric

[Sarah]

Pertaining to, or resembling, pearl; pearly. Margaric acid. (a)(Physiol. Chem.) A fatty body, crystallizing in pearly scales, andobtained by digesting saponified fats (soaps) with an acid. It wasformerly supposed to be an individual fatty acid, but is now known tobe simply an intimate mixture of stearic and palmitic acids. (b)(Chem.) A white, crystalline substance, C17H34O2 of the fatty acidseries, intermediate between palmitic and stearic acids, and obtainedfrom the wax of certain lichens, from cetyl cyanide, and othersources.