(3) Carboxylic acids are a form of an organic acid. All carboxylic contain one Carbon atom, one Oxygen atom, and one hydroxyl group. The combination of the atoms looks like this (COOH). Any grouping of molecules that contain these (COOH groupings) is considered a carboxylic acid. Picric acid is an organic compound with the formula (O2N)3C6H2OH. As picric acid doesn’t contain COOH groupings it is not referred as carboxylic acid.