ABSTRACT
Phospholipids (PLs) are the main structural lipid components of cell and organelle membranes in all living organisms, and thus, they occur in all organisms and derived food products. As a consequence of such preferential location in membranes, PLs show strong binding to membrane proteins through hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions (Nylander, 2004) and, thus, their extraction may pose some difculties. PLs are usually considered as complex lipids or polar lipids, being the major chemical class in this family. There is no general agreement on the best way to classify PLs, but most classications contain a category for glycerol-containing PLs (glycerophosphatides or phosphoglycerides) and another one for sphingolipids (sphingosylphosphatides or phosphosphingolipids) (Pokorny, 2002; Erickson, 2007).
