ABSTRACT
Features of lipids The name ‘lipid’ comes from the Greek ‘lipos’ and literally means fat; however, fats are just one subgroup of this very diverse class of molecules. Lipids are important biological systems that, although they differ in composition, have two inter-related features; they all contain a polar head group and a nonpolar tail and they are all relatively water insoluble:
Nonpolar tail
Polar head
Palmitic acid
H 3 C
O
OH
Lipids perform a variety of roles. They can act as storage systems of chemical energy that comes from the food we eat. Lipids are involved in maintaining our body temperature and in protecting important tissue and organs from mechanical damage. They are of course a major component of all cell membranes. One of the more specialized functions of lipids is to act as chemical messengers, as in hormones which are lipids.
