Question

What are lipids and what are some of their common properties?

Answer 1

Energy is one of the most expensive nutritional components of feed composition in livestock diets. Because lipids are a concentrated source of energy, they have been shown to alter growth rate and feed efficiency, as well as diet palatability, feed dustiness, and pellet quality.

Complete answer:
Lipids are an organic chemical family made up of fats and oils. These molecules have a lot of energy and are involved in a variety of actions in the human body. Lipids have a number of significant features, which are listed below.

Lipids are nonpolar oily or greasy molecules that are stored in the body's adipose tissue.
Lipids are a diverse collection of chemicals that are primarily made up of hydrocarbon chains. Lipids are organic compounds that are high in energy and supply energy for a variety of living functions. Lipids are a family of chemicals distinguished by their insolubility in water and solubility in nonpolar solvents.

Lipids are a diverse collection of chemical molecules that are soluble in non-polar organic solvents but insoluble in water. They are employed as cell membrane components, energy storage molecules, insulation, and hormones in most plants, animals, and microbes.

Lipids' Characteristics-
1. At room temperature, lipids can be either liquids or non-crystalline solids.
2. Colorless, odourless, and tasteless are the characteristics of pure fats and oils.
3. They're organic compounds with a lot of energy.
4. It is insoluble in water.
5. Alcohol, chloroform, acetone, benzene, and other organic solvents are soluble.
6. There are no ionic charges.
7. Saturated fatty acids are abundant in solid triglycerols (fats).
8. Unsaturated fatty acids are abundant in liquid triglycerols (oils).

Classification of lipids:
Lipids can be divided into groups based on their hydrolysis products and molecular structure similarities. There are three major subclasses:

1. Simple lipids
(a) Fats and oils that hydrolyze to fatty acids and glycerol.
(b) Waxes, which when hydrolyzed generate fatty acids and long-chain alcohols.
When phospholipids are hydrolyzed, they produce fatty acids, glycerol, the amino alcohol sphingosine, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen-containing alcohol.

2. Compound lipids
(a) Depending on the alcohol group present, they can be glycerophospholipids or sphingophospholipids (glycerol or sphingosine).
(b) Glycolipids, which when hydrolyzed generate fatty acids, sphingosine, or glycerol, and carbohydrates. Depending on the alcohol group present, they can alternatively be called glyceroglycolipids or sphingoglycolipids (glycerol or sphingosine).

3. Derived lipids:
Derived lipids are the hydrolysis products of simple and complex lipids. Fatty acids, glycerol, sphingosine, and steroid derivatives are among them. Steroid derivatives are phenanthrene structures that are distinct from fatty acid-based lipids.

Note:-
Lipids are important in biological systems because they constitute the cell membrane, which is a mechanical barrier that separates a cell from its surroundings. Lipids are organic molecules that are relatively insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents (alcohol, ether, etc.) and are used by living cells. They are actually or potentially connected to fatty acids.