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![\"Lipid](\"http:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Lipid-Figure-1.jpg\")
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Most lipids usually consist of a long hydrophilic tail coupled to a polar head group that undergoes reactions to elongate or shorted the hydrophobic tail.\u00a0 We will cover some common organic chemistry reactions with each of these classes of lipids.<\/p>\n
Complex Lipids – Fatty acids and Triglycerides<\/p>\n
Complex lipids are capable of undergoing hydrolysis reactions.\u00a0 The basic unit of a complex lipids are fatty acids<\/strong>, which are made up of a hydrophobic tail coupled to a carboxylic acid head group (Figure 2).\u00a0 The length of the carbon chain denotes the lipid name.\u00a0 In addition, the number of double bonds, or degree of unsaturation<\/strong>, also influences the name.\u00a0 In biology, naturally occurring double bonds will always be found in the cis- configuration<\/em>.<\/p>\n Hydrogenation of alkene groups to alkanes occurs at high temperatures, such as in deep fryers for cooking, and this side reaction leads to the isomerization of the double bond to the trans- conformation, hence trans-fatty acids.\u00a0 These lipids are toxic in high quantities because they are unable to be metabolized by the cell, thus accumulating and undergoing oxidation reactions over time and theorized to promote inflammation and metabolic diseases.\u00a0 Coupling of a fatty acids to the alcohol groups of glycerol forms the complex lipid, triglyceride (Figure 2).\u00a0 This reaction occurs enzymatically in the cell but closely resembles the mechanism found in acid-catalyzed Fisher Esterification<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n Simple Lipids \u2013 Sterols<\/p>\n Steroids are an integral part of cellular biology but are classified as simple lipids because they cannot be hydrolyzed (i.e. they do not have reactive carbonyl or carboxyl groups).\u00a0 A lipid molecule having a tetracyclic shape in the arrangement similar to cholesterol is classified as a sterol.\u00a0 Cholesterol serves as the building block of all steroids and substitution<\/strong><\/span>, addition<\/strong> <\/span>and elimination<\/strong> <\/span>of functional groups derives the variety of steroids found in the body. Cholesterol is synthesized from the 5 carbon lipid molecule isopentenyl phosphate.\u00a0 Condensation<\/strong> <\/span>of isopentenyl phosphate forms geranyl phosphate (10C) and farnesyl phosphate (15C) in a reaction mechanism that involves allylic carbocation and tertiary carbocation intermediates (Figure 3). \u00a0Condensation of two farnesyl phosphate molecules forms the 30 carbon intermediate squalene, which in several steps is converted to cholesterol. \u00a0Two important examples of steroids are the sex hormones found in humans, estradiol and testosterone, which regulate a wide range of biological functions.<\/p>\n Lipids are a fundamental part of biochemistry and draw many analogies to reactions with alkenes and alkanes.\u00a0 In this article, we will review some basics of lipids and their organic chemistry implications. \u00a0Many of the reactions with lipids are simple hydrocarbon reaction mechanisms covered in Organic Chemistry 1. \u00a0With over 175 reaction mechanisms, StudyOrgo is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,19,17,18,21],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organic-chemistry","tag-cholesterol","tag-fatty-acids","tag-lipids","tag-organic","tag-triglyceride"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":580,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.studyorgo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"