Lipids

 LIPIDS

Introduction

Lipids form a group of organic compounds which are widely distributed in living organisms. Chemically they are esters of fatty acids or are capable of forming esters. The important lipids are triacyl glycerols, phospholipids, sterols and fatty acids.

 

 

Fatty acids

Fatty acids are carboxylic acid with hydrocarbon side chains. They are the simplest form of lipids and they are water soluble. They exist in the body either as free acids or fatty acyl esters such as triacylglycerol. The fatty acids are released from these lipids on hydrolysis by lipases.

Classification

Fatty acids may be divided into (i) saturated fatty acids and (2) unsaturated fatty acids.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cell Membrane and its Functions

Image
  Cell Membrane The cell is enveloped and thus separated from its surroundings by a thin wall contains a rigid framework of polysaccharide chains crosslinked with short peptide chains. Its outer surface is coated with lipopolysaccharide. Cell membrane is also called as plasma membrane (or) plasma lemma. The pili, not found in all bacteria have extensions of the cell wall. The cell membrane contains about 45% lipid and 55% protein. The cell membrane or plasma membrane have an average thickness of 75A°. The principal lipids are phospholipids, sphingolipids and cholesterol. An important feature of these lipids is they are composed of hydrophobic (water - insoluble) hydrocarbon sections and hydrophilic (water soluble) units. The latter include charged units (eg. phosphate or amino groups) and uncharged units (eg. hexose). In water, such compounds orient themselves in such a way that only the hydrophilic section is exposed to water. The hydrophobic components of individual molecules ten...
Read more

Types of Living cells

Image
  Types of cells Two general types are recognised in nature. They are prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Prokaryotic cells Prokaryotes were the first cells to arise in biological evolution. They are very small and simple having only a single membrane. The cell membrane, is usually surrounded by a rigid cell wall. They are devoid of nucleus and membranous organelles such as mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum etc. (Fig. 1.1). Eukaryotic cells Eukaryotic cells are presumably derived from prokaryotes. They are much larger and much more complex than prokaryotic cells (Fig. 1.2). They have nucleus and membrane bound subcellular organelles. Many of their metabolic reactions are segregated within structural compartments. The significant differences between prokaryotic and enkaryotic cells are: The eukaryotic cell structure is composed of (i) cell membrane, (ii) nucleus (iii) mitochondria (iv) endoplasmic reticulum (v) golgi apparatus (vi) ribosomes (vii) lysosomes and others. These spec...
Read more

Sub cellular Organelles

Image
  Sub cellular Organelles   Cell Membrane The cell is enveloped and thus separated from its surroundings by a thin wall contains a rigid framework of polysaccharide chains crosslinked with short peptide chains. Its outer surface is coated with lipopolysaccharide. Cell membrane is also called as plasma membrane (or) plasma lemma. The pili, not found in all bacteria have extensions of the cell wall. The cell membrane contains about 45% lipid and 55% protein. The cell membrane or plasma membrane have an average thickness of 75A°. The principal lipids are phospholipids, sphingolipids and cholesterol. An important feature of these lipids is they are composed of hydrophobic (water - insoluble) hydrocarbon sections and hydrophilic (water soluble) units. The latter include charged units (eg. phosphate or amino groups) and uncharged units (eg. hexose). In water, such compounds orient themselves in such a way that only the hydrophilic section is exposed to water. The hydrophobic compone...
Read more