Talk:Eicosapentaenoic acid

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Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the wikiproject's quality scale.
High This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.

Article Grading: The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit · history · watch · refresh)

Contents

[edit] Quality and Priority

I judge EPA's priority (importance) to to be 'High', as it gets a pretty good amount of mention in the popular press. However, most of what makes it that important is well covered at related articles (eicosanoid, fish oil...).

I judge it's quality to be Start. It has some basic info and some citations. Some of what it's lacking:

  • first elucidation of its structure.(who, when)
  • Characterization of its physical properties (who, when)
  • Demonstration that it is an essential fatty acid
  • Biosynthetic paths in microalgae (the ultimate source of much dietary EPA)
  • Biosynthesis in the human body for ALA
    • An issue where there's some controversy and contradictory findings. Can adult humans synthesize adequate EPA from ALA?
  • Commerce in EPA as a food additive and supplement
  • Rancidity
  • Use in treatment/prevention of various diseases
    • alone or in combination with DHA
  • At least an intro to its role as a precursor to the classic and nonclassic eicosanoids
  • Role as a signaling molecule in DNA transcription.
  • Role in lipid membranes
  • Presence/Role in the brain.
  • Role in pregnancy/lactation
  • Pictures, diagrams
    • A space filling model would be nice
    • UV, Mass-spec spectra
    • Picture of a lipid raft

David.Throop 14:47, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Removed link to fish oil blog .com which is clearly a commercial sites

[edit] Hunington

Removed the claim:

It has also been proved that it can slow down and in some case reverse the growth of Huntinton's disease

because

  • It was unsourced,
  • It's apparently misspelled (Huntington's chorea?)
  • The claim is not supported by the US govt.

So I added a link to the NIH site that discusses Fish oil and omega-3s. David.Throop 20:36, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

There's a new compound being developed for Huntington's, and it is essentially artificial EPA. It's called "Miraxion". In a stage III trial now, AFAIK. Best regards, CopperKettle 11:23, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
Actually, Miraxon is the ethyl-ester of EPA. It failed its Phase III trials for Huntington's.
David.Throop (talk) 15:45, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pageblanking

Same site has removed Talk page discussion of fishoilblog from EPA, DHA, Cod liver oil and Fish oil pages.

[edit] Citationstyle

I don't understand the complaint about the citation style. The citation links seem to be in pretty good shape to me. The person adding the warning didn't leave any specifics about suggested improvements. I'm removing the Citationstyle link; I'm open to restoring it if someone has some specific requests. David.Throop 20:41, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Snake oil

I added a link to snake oil. The Chinese water snake, Enhydris chinensis, is richest known EPA source - the diet of the water snake consists almost solely on fish. Its fat contains even more EPA than that of salmon.62.237.141.27 16:49, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

That seems fair enough to me, though some explanation may be needed next to the link, because the term "snake oil" has fraudulent connotations in Western society. --Kyoko 17:00, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
A source for the information on Enhydris chinensis would also be helpful. --Kyoko 17:02, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
See the Kunin citation over at Snake oil
David.Throop (talk) 16:19, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
Surely "snake oil" does connote fraudulence, but whether the connotation is fraudulent or not is a matter for linguists and historians, not biochemists, to decide. What must be made clear is that Wikipedia does not intend, in this case, to imply that connotation. That can best be done, in my opinion, by avoiding the term "snake oil" entirely. How about "Chinese water snake fat"? Unfree (talk) 11:31, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Medical recommend

I removed the sentence

Fatty acids supplements should be taken with extra care especially if you are under medication due to potential drug interaction.

because it was not supported by the citation given. (The citation says that several Cytochrome P450 enzymes are inhibited, but makes no medical recommendation.) David.Throop 21:43, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Effectiveness

"The US National Institute of Health's MedlinePlus lists a large number of conditions in which EPA (alone or in concert with other ω-3 sources) is known or thought to be effective."

That statement is needlessly vague. "Conditions" could refer to anything from bliss to polka-dottedness. "Large numbers" might only mean millions, but it could mean millions of googolplexes. Worst of all, "effective" seems to indicate that EPA causes the condition. Is that what Wikipedia means to say? Unfree (talk) 11:15, 23 May 2008 (UTC)