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Question

Describe various forms of lipid with a few examples.

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Solution

Lipids are the esters of higher fatty acid with alcohol, such as glycerol, etc.

These can be classified as

1.Simple lipids are esters of fatty acids with alcohol. These may be

(i) Fats These are esters of higher fatty acids with glycerol (triglycerides).

(ii) Waxes These are esters of higher fatty acids with alcoholother than glycerol.

2. Compound or conjugated lipids,are those compounds which contain simple lipids and prosthetic (other additional) group. They include

(i) Glycerophospholipids. aslo known as phospholipids in which one of teh fatty acid is replaced by phosphoric acid which is linked to nitrogenous groups like choline, ethanolanine, serine etc, e.g., Lecithin and cephalin, etc.

(ii) Sphingo lipids, are lipides having phosphoric acid with amine alcohol 4-sphinganine or sphingosine instead of glycerol in addition to fatty acid adn choline.

(iii) Glycolipids. I.e., those which contain spinganine with a fatty acid and a monosaccharide sugar, e.g., cerebrosides and gangliosides.

3. Steroids are compounds with different chemical nature but similar physical properties. Their structure is based upon a 4 ring cyclopentenoperhydro phenanthrence, e.g., cholesterol.

4. Prostoglandins are derivatives of arachidonic acid and contain 20 C-atoms. These are biologically active lipids.


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