Stearic acid crystals
Stearic acid (IUPAC systematic name: octadecanoic acid) is one of the useful types of saturated fatty acids that comes from many animal and vegetable fats and oils.
Official documents, adverse reaction reporting, and safety monitoring
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Official medicine documents
Yellow Card
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Drug safety updates
MHRA alerts for Stearic acid
Safety monitoring data
Yellow Card reports
The MHRA Yellow Card scheme collects reports of suspected side effects from healthcare professionals and patients. View the Drug Analysis Profile (iDAP) for real-world adverse reaction data.
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Data from the MHRA Yellow Card scheme. A reported reaction does not necessarily mean the medicine caused it. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
EudraVigilance
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) collects suspected adverse reaction reports from across the EU/EEA through the EudraVigilance system. Search for safety data on this medicine.
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EudraVigilance data is published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). A suspected adverse reaction is not necessarily caused by the medicine.
1 branded products available
Therapeutically similar medicines
Similarity is based on WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification and on a factual NHS dm+d therapeutic-grouping code prefix. Source data: NHS dm+d via TRUD (OGL v3.0), WHO ATC/DDD Index.
NHS prescribing volume and spending trends
Check stock at pharmacies and supply information
Pharmacy stock checkers
Search for this medicine at major UK pharmacy chains. These links open the retailer's own website — results depend on their current online catalogue.
Supply & safety information
Official UK regulator monitoring and safety alerts
Pharmacy links redirect to the retailer's own search and do not represent real-time stock levels. Shortage and safety information sourced from MHRA drug safety updates (gov.uk, Crown Copyright under OGL v3.0).
Codes for healthcare professionals and prescribing systems
These codes are used by healthcare IT systems and prescribers to identify this medicine.
NHS UK identifiers
SNOMED CT and dm+d codes from NHS TRUD (Technology Reference data Update Distribution), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Active and completed clinical studies from ClinicalTrials.gov
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH). Data accessed via ClinicalTrials.gov API v2. Trial information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Academic studies and reviews for this medicine's active substance
Showing the 50 most relevant studies.
Reviews & meta-analyses: 4 · Randomised trials: 1 · 1965–2025
Showing the 50 most relevant studies, sorted by most relevant.
John E. Hunter, Jun Zhang, Penny M. Kris‐Etherton
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2009
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Dietary Carbohydrates
- Dietary Fats
M. van Rooijen, Ronald P. Mensink
Nutrients, 2020
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Esterification
- Stearic Acids
J.R. Loften, J.G. Linn, J.K. Drackley, et al.
Journal of Dairy Science, 2014
- Lactation
- Cattle
- Diet
José Felipe Orzuna-Orzuna, Juan Eduardo Godina-Rodríguez, Jonathan Raúl Garay-Martínez, et al.
Agriculture, 2024
Xiang Liu, Tian C. Zhang, Huaqiang He, et al.
Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2020
Hall WL, Wood E, Joris PJ, et al.
2025
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Dietary Fats
- Palmitic Acid
Yifan Si, Zhiguang Guo, Weimin Liu
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2016
Rahul Thakur, Bahareh Saberi, Penta Pristijono, et al.
International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2016
- Food Packaging
- Carrageenan
- Permeability
Chuanchang Li, Bo Zhang, Baoshan Xie, et al.
Sustainable Cities and Society, 2018
A Bonanome, Scott M. Grundy
New England Journal of Medicine, 1988
- Cholesterol
- Diet
- Fatty Acids
Sources: aggregated from Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI), OpenAlex, Crossref, PubMed and other open scholarly databases. Retracted articles are excluded. Study information is provided for research purposes and does not constitute medical advice.
Pharmacology and chemical data from DrugBank
Key facts
Drug status
Approved
Major interactions
None known
Half-life
Not available
Mechanism
Not available
Food interactions
None known
Human targets
2 targets
Data: DrugBank · CC BY-NC 4.0
Pharmacokinetics at a glance
Proteins and enzymes this drug interacts with in the body
Activated by oleylethanolamide, a naturally occurring lipid that regulates satiety. Receptor for peroxisome proliferators such as hypolipidemic drugs and fatty acids. Regulates the peroxisomal beta-oxidation pathway of fatty acids.
Functions as a transcription activator for the ACOX1 and P450 genes. Transactivation activity requires heterodimerization with RXRA and is antagonized by NR2C2. May be required for the propagation of clock information to metabolic pathways regulated by PER2
PMID:10455175 PMID:10681567
Hydrolyzes the ester bond of the fatty acyl group attached at sn-2 position of phospholipids (phospholipase A2 activity) with preference for phosphatidylethanolamines and phosphatidylglycerols over phosphatidylcholines .
PMID:10455175
In draining lymph nodes, selectively hydrolyzes diacyl and alkenyl forms of phosphatidylethanolamines, releasing omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as eicosapentaenoate and docosahexaenoate that are precursors of the anti-inflammatory lipid mediators, resolvins (By similarity). During the resolution phase of acute inflammation drives docosahexaenoate-derived resolvin D1 synthesis, which suppresses dendritic cell activation and T-helper 1 immune response (By similarity). May act in an autocrine and paracrine manner (By similarity).
Via a mechanism independent of its catalytic activity, promotes differentiation of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and participates in the maintenance of immune tolerance (By similarity). May contribute to lipid remodeling of cellular membranes and generation of lipid mediators involved in pathogen clearance. Displays bactericidal activity against Gram-positive bacteria by directly hydrolyzing phospholipids of the bacterial membrane (By similarity)
Proteins that carry this drug through the body
PMID:19021548
Major calcium and magnesium transporter in plasma, binds approximately 45% of circulating calcium and magnesium in plasma (By similarity).
Potentially has more than two calcium-binding sites and might additionally bind calcium in a non-specific manner (By similarity). The shared binding site between zinc and calcium at residue Asp-273 suggests a crosstalk between zinc and calcium transport in the blood (By similarity). The rank order of affinity is zinc > calcium > magnesium (By similarity).
Binds to the bacterial siderophore enterobactin and inhibits enterobactin-mediated iron uptake of E.coli from ferric transferrin, and may thereby limit the utilization of iron and growth of enteric bacteria such as E.coli .
PMID:6234017
Does not prevent iron uptake by the bacterial siderophore aerobactin PMID:6234017
Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
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Chemical identifiers
CAS, UNII, InChI Key and database cross-references
Linked compound data from DrugBank Open Data (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Stearic acid
Additional database identifiers
Drugs Product Database (DPD)
9820
ChemSpider
5091
BindingDB
50240485
PDB
STE
ZINC
ZINC000004978673
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:9232
GenAtlas
PPARA
GeneCards
PPARA
GenBank Gene Database
L02932
GenBank Protein Database
307341
Guide to Pharmacology
593
UniProt Accession
PPARA_HUMAN
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:9033
GeneCards
PLA2G2D
GenBank Gene Database
AF112982
GenBank Protein Database
5771420
Guide to Pharmacology
1418
UniProt Accession
PA2GD_HUMAN
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:3557
GenAtlas
FABP3
GeneCards
FABP3
GenBank Gene Database
X56549
GenBank Protein Database
31293
Guide to Pharmacology
2533
UniProt Accession
FABPH_HUMAN
HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC)
HGNC:399
GenAtlas
ALB
GeneCards
ALB
GenBank Gene Database
V00494
GenBank Protein Database
28590
UniProt Accession
ALBU_HUMAN
DrugBank citations
If you use DrugBank data in your research, please cite:
- DrugBank 6.02024Recommended citationKnox C., Wilson M., Klinger C.M., et alDrugBank 6.0: the DrugBank Knowledgebase for 2024Nucleic Acids Res. 2024 Jan 552(D1):D1265-D1275
- DrugBank 5.02018Wishart D.S., Feunang Y.D., Guo A.C., et alDrugBank 5.0: a major update to the DrugBank database for 2018Nucleic Acids Res. 2017 Nov 846(D1):D1074-D1082
- DrugBank 4.02014Law V., Knox C., Djoumbou Y., et alDrugBank 4.0: shedding new light on drug metabolismNucleic Acids Res. 2014 Jan 142(1):D1091-7
- DrugBank 3.02011Knox C., Law V., Jewison T., et alDrugBank 3.0: a comprehensive resource for 'omics' research on drugsNucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jan39(Database issue):D1035-41
- DrugBank 2.02008Wishart D.S., Knox C., Guo A.C., et alDrugBank: a knowledgebase for drugs, drug actions and drug targets.Nucleic Acids Research2008 Jan36(Database issue):D901-6
- DrugBank 1.02006Wishart D.S., Knox C., Guo A.C., et alDrugBank: a comprehensive resource for in silico drug discovery and exploration.Nucleic Acids Research2006 Jan 134(Database issue):D668-72