Introduction to Chemistry of Lipids
Lipids comprises heterogeneous group of compounds which are insoluble in water but soluble in non-polar organic solvents such us benzene, chloroform, and ether, present in all living organisms.
The group includes fats, oils, waxes and related compounds.
General Functions of Lipids
i. They are efficient energy sources.
ii. Serve as thermal insulators.
iii. They are structural components of the cell membrane.
iv. Serve as precursors for hormones (steroid hormones).
v. They also dissolve the vitamins, which are fat-soluble and assist their digestion.
2. Classification base on composition
2.3. Nomenclature of fatty acid
Systemic or IUPAC name of a fatty acid is formed by replacing the ending –e of alkane with suffix – oic acid to form a carboxylic acid
• Examples: 16C fatty acid: hexadecanoic acid (hexadecane), and 18C fatty acid: octadecanoic acid (octadecane)
• Fatty acid can also be named using α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ,
η, θ to describe the carbon positions
The carboxyl carbon is only assigned C-1 while
from C-2 can now take α and C-3, β and so on. The terminal carbon atom in a fatty acid molecule
is considered as ω-carbon or the n-carbon atom.
