Introduction to Lipids

Fats and oils, which are present in a wide variety of foods, are classified as lipids, a group of biomolecules. In addition to storing energy, lipids serve a diversity of biological purposes. Lipids are not characterized by the presence of specific functional groups, such as carbohydrates, but by their physical property and solubility. Multiple compounds obtained from body tissues are categorized as lipids if they are more soluble in nature in organic solvents. Thus, the lipid classification includes not only oils and fats, which are esters of the trihydroxy alcohol glycerol and fatty acids, but also compounds that merged functional groups derived from carbohydrates, phosphoric acid, or amino alcohols, in addition to steroid compounds such as cholesterol. In this chapter, we discussed the various kinds of lipids by considering classification and pointing out structural similarities, history, and nomenclature.