Relating to or derived from citraconic acid, a compound structurally similar to citric acid.
From citraconic acid, a name combining cit- (from citric) and -conic (from maleic acid, which it resembles). The compound was first synthesized in the 1880s by chemists studying citric acid transformations.
Citraconic acid is what you get when you heat citric acid—the atoms stay the same but rearrange into a new shape, like rearranging Lego blocks into a different structure. This process, called decarboxylation, shows how heat can fundamentally transform molecules.
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