Succinates

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A class of organic compounds derived from succinic acid, typically used as salts or esters in various chemical reactions or industrial applications
2. Compounds that result from the reaction of succinic acid with bases, commonly utilized in biochemistry and pharmaceuticals
3. Salts or esters of succinic acid that play roles in metabolic processes and can be found in both natural and synthetic forms

Etymology: Succinates are salts and esters of succinic acid, and their name is a chain of two older words. Succinic acid takes its name from Latin "succinum," meaning amber, because the acid was first obtained by distilling amber. The Latin word itself is linked to "sucus," meaning juice or sap, a reference to amber's origin as fossilised tree resin. The "-ate" ending is the standard chemical suffix for salts and esters formed from an acid, so a succinate is the compound produced when succinic acid combines with a base or an alcohol. The same pattern gives names like acetate and citrate, which follow the same logic: an acid name with "-ic" dropped and "-ate" added. The plural simply counts several different succinate compounds, such as sodium succinate or diethyl succinate, each one a distinct salt or ester of the same acid.