This example question asks us to draw the starting Triacylglycerol used when its complete basic hydrolysis creates 2 Laurate Salts, 1 Palmitate Salt, and a Glycerol Molecule. Alright. So, here we're working backwards. First, we note that these 2 salts came from fatty acids. Here, the Laurate salt comes from Lauric acid, and the Palmitate salt came from Palmitic acid. Both of these fatty acids represent saturated fatty acids; Lauric acid has 12 carbons and no pi bonds, and Palmitic acid has 16 carbons and no pi bonds.
Now, working backwards, we start out with our glycerol base. So, we have CH2CHCH2, and these are connected to Oxygens to create our starting material. We're going to make Ester Linkages, so these Oxygens are connected to the carbonyls of these fatty acid chains. The first two will be Laurate Salts, each with 12 carbons: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. Repeat that sequence again: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. And then the last one is 16 carbons: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16. This represents our starting material, our Triglyceride molecule or our Triacylglycerol molecule.
So again, we're just working backwards, knowing what the salt was in terms of its fatty acid form is essential to determine how many carbons it possesses and how many pi bonds it possesses. From there, we need to make Ester Linkages between the fatty acids and the glycerol base, which connects the fatty acids to it. Keep that in mind when asked to figure out what our starting material would be.