Experiment No.

2
Fats and Lipids

Questions:

1. What is the difference between a fat and oil, physically and chemically?

Fats and oils are called triglycerides (or triacylcylgerols) because they are
esters composed of three fatty acid units joined to glycerol. The difference between
fat and oil is only physical. Thus, fat is solid at room temperature, esters of fatty
acids with glycerol while oil is a fat that are liquid at room temperature.

From: https://www.vedantu.com/chemistry/difference-between-fats-and-oils
2. What are glycerides? Why is an acrolein test a general test for fats and oils?

Acylglycerols (formerly called glycerides) are esters in which one, two or three fatty acids have
reacted with the alcohol, glycerol. Glycerol, sometimes called glycerine, has three hydroxyl groups per
molecule and thus is described as a polyhydric alcohol A glyceride, or glyceryl ester, is a
monoacylglycerol, diacylglycerol, or triacylglycerol, depending on whether one, two, or three of the
alcohol groups of glycerol are esterified with fatty acid(s)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/glyceride

Acrolein test is a qualitative test for the presence of glycerol, either free or esterified, based
upon its oxidative dehydration to acrolein when heated with solid potassium hydrogen sulfate When fat
is treated strongly in the presence of a dehydrating agent like potassium bisulphate (KHSO4), the
glycerol portion of the molecule is dehydrated to form an unsaturated aldehyde, acrolein that has a
pungent irritating odor.

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095348108#:~:text=A
%20qualitative%20test%20for%20the,with%20solid%20potassium%20hydrogen%20sulfate.