It is found in various plants of the genus Sterculia, including being the main component of Sterculia foetida seed oil.

This transformation involves two mechanistic steps: electrophilic methylation with S-adenosyl methionine to give a carbocationic reactive intermediate, followed by cyclization via loss of H+ mediated by a cyclopropane-fatty-acyl-phospholipid synthase enzyme.

The product, dihydrosterculic acid, is converted to sterculic acid by dehydrogenation of the cis-disubstituted cyclopropane to cyclopropene.

[2] An additional step of α oxidation removes one carbon from the carboxy chain to form the 17-carbon-chain structure of malvalic acid.

This article about an organic compound is a stub.