High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In organic chemistry, a saturated compound is a chemical compound that has of a chain of carbon atoms linked together by single bonds and has hydrogen atoms filling all of the other bonding orbitals of the carbon atoms. Alkanes are an example of saturated compounds. An unsaturated compound is a chemical compound that contains carbon-carbon double bonds or triple bonds, such as those found in alkenes or alkynes, respectively. Saturated and unsaturated compounds need not consist only of a carbon atom chain. They can have functional groups, as well. It is in this sense that fatty acids are classified as saturated or unsaturated. The amount of unsaturation of a fatty acid can be determined by finding its iodine number.