What are the molecules found in lipids?

1 Answer
Krishan T. · Nam D.
Mar 9, 2018

Lipids are mainly made up of glycerol and fatty acids.

Explanation:

A lipid molecule is a triglyceride. Glycerol is a trihydric alcohol. A long chain fatty acid molecule gets attached to each of three hydroxylic #(-OH)# groups of glycerol.

The fatty acid may be saturated or unsaturated. The general formula of saturated fatty acid is #R-CH2-CH2-COOH#. The general formula of unsaturated fatty acid is #R-CH=CH-COOH#. #R# represents variable length of carbon chain.

Fatty acid gets attached to #(-OH)# group of glycerol by #(-COOH)# group of fatty acid by removal of #H_2O# molecule to form #O-CO# bond.

In phospholipids, a phosphate #(PO_4^(3-))# molecule may get attached to #-OH# group instead of the fatty acid molecule.

Related questions
See all questions in Lipids
Impact of this question
7291 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License