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Intervening members of this series, such as caprylic acid, C7H15·COOH, and lauric acid, C11H23·COOH, are also found in smaller quantities in cocoanut and palm nut oils, in butter fat, and in spermaceti; while higher members of the series, as arachidic acid, C19H39·COOH, and lignoceric acid, C23H47·COOH, are found in peanut oil; and cerotic acid, C25H51·COOH, and melissic acid, C29H59·COOH, in beeswax and carnauba wax.

They are extremely complex in composition, the former consisting principally of an acid similar to the fatty acids, called cerotic acid, and containing C54H54O4.

It is a mixture of myricine, cerotic acid, and cerolein, the first of which is insoluble in boiling alcohol, the second is soluble in hot alcohol and crystallizes out on cooling, while the third remains dissolved in cold alcohol.

To avoid this, the quantity of alkali required to saponify the myricine is first ascertained, and then that required to saturate the free cerotic acid.