What are lipids?

 Lipids are a very varied group of chemicals.

 Insoluble in water and organic
 Mostly formed fatty acid and an alcohol
 Familiar ones are fats and oils.
 Fats are solid at room temp and oil are liquids and they are chemically similar.

Fatty acids
 Series of acids – some are found in lipids.
 Contain acidic groups – C, O, O, H
 Known as carboxyl group and forms head of fatty acid molecules.
 Common fatty acids- long hydrocarbon tails attached to carboxyl groups.
 Hydrocarbon tails consist of chains of carbon atoms and hydrogen.
 15 or 17 carbon atoms long
 Tails of some fatty acids have double bonds between neighbouring carbon atoms likes this -
C=C-
 Fatty acids are described as unsaturated because they don’t contain the max amount of
hydrogen molecules.
 Double bonds make fatty acid and lipid melt more easily.
 If there is more than one double bond the fatty acid or lipid is described as polyunsaturated
 Only 1= monosaturated
 Animal lipids are often saturated whereas as plant lipids are unsaturated.

Alcohol and esters

 Alcohols are a series of organic molecules which contain a hydroxyl group known as -OH
attached to a carbon atom
 Glycerol is an alcohol with 3 hydroxyl groups.
 Reaction between an acid and an alcohol produces a chemical know as ester – known s ester
bond or ester linkage.
 The -COOH on the acid reacts with the -OH group on the alcohol to form the ester bond
making -COO- , this is a condensation reaction because water is form as a product resulting
ester can be returned to it normal form by the reverse reaction by adding water – known as
hydrolysis

Triglycerides
 Most common lipids (fats and oils)
 Glycerides is an ester formed by a fatty acid with the alcohol glyceride
 The 3 hydroxyl groups that glycerol has are each able to do a condensation reaction with
fatty acids.
 When triglycerides are made its 3 fatty acid tails and ester bonds have different variations in
length depending on the fatty acid used
 Insoluble in water and soluble in certain organic solvent such as ethanol – reason being the
hydrocarbon tails have no uneven distribution of electrical charge making them nonpolar
 Function of triglycerides

 Make excellent energy stores because they are richer in carbon hydrogen bonds rather than
carbs.
 Given mass of triglycerides with therefore yield more energy on oxidation in the same mass
of carbs -important advantage for storage products
 Stored in a number of places in the human body -below the skin and around the kidneys :
below the skin they act as insulators
 Blubber -a triglyceride found in sea mammals that has similar function as well as providing
buoyancy
 Unusual role for triglycerides -metabolic source of water
 When oxidises in respiration triglycerides =water and carbon dioxide
 H2o ,may be of importance in dry habitats --- e.g. dessert kangaroo rats never drink water
and survive on metabolic water from triglyceride containing food

Phospholipids
 Special type of lipid because the molecule has unusual properties, they have one end which
is soluble in water because one of the 3 fatty acids molecules is replaced by a phosphate
group that can dissolve in water because its polar
 The phosphate group is hydrophilic making the head of the phospholipid’s molecule is
hydrophilic
 Because the other 2 tails are hydrophobic the phospholipid can form a membrane around
the cell
 The structure would be of 2 rows of arranged phospholipids with their hydrophilic heads in
the water solution on either side of the membrane.
 Their hydrophilic tails form a impermeable layer to hydrophilic substances

Questions on lipids:

1. What is the most common lipid?

2. How is an ester bond formed?

3. What are the functions of triglycerides?

4. Why is a phospholipid considered as a special lipid?

5. What animal can survive off the triglycerides provided by the food they eat?