The β-oxidation of an 18-carbon acid produces ##”9 mol of Acetyl-CoA, 8 mol of NADH, and 8 mol of FADH”_2##.
The β-oxidation pathway for a saturated fatty acid is a four-step cycle.
A ##”C”_18## acid (stearic acid) enters as ##”stearyl-CoA”##.
Each pass through the cycle removes 2 carbon atoms and generates 1 molecule each of ##”acetyl-CoA, NADH, and FADH”_2##.
The first seven passes through the cycle remove 14 carbon atoms and generate 7 molecules each of ##”acetyl-CoA, NADH, and FADH”_2##.
In the eighth pass, the remaining 4 carbon atoms are converted to 2 molecules of ##”acetyl-CoA”## and 1 each of ##”NADH”## and ##”FADH”_2##.
This makes a total of ##”9 acetyl-CoA, 8 NADH, and 8 FADH”_2##.
The overall equation for the β-oxidation of ##”stearyl-CoA”## is:
##”CH”_3(“CH”_2)_16″CO-SCoA” + “8FAD” + “8NAD”^+ + “8HSCoA” + “8H”_2″O” → color(red)(9)”CH”_3″CO-SCoA” + color(red)(8)”NADH” + color(red)(8)”FADH”_2 + “8H”^+##
