Question

What are lipids? Give their types.

Answer 1

Hint: Lipids are one of the macronutrients found in the body, it is the organic molecules that comprise carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, which form the framework and the structure of the living cell, and lipids are major components of the cell membrane.

Complete answer:
Lipids are the organic molecules that are insoluble in water and soluble in the organic solvents such as alcohol and the ether.

> Types of Lipids: Majorly there are four types of lipids which includes
- Simple lipids
- Complex or compound lipids
- Derived lipids
- Miscellaneous lipids.

> Simple lipids: These are the simple one’s, they are nothing but esters of fatty acids with alcohol. Examples are fat and oil, waxes.

> Compound lipids: This is the esters of the fatty acids with alcohol and additional groups such as phosphate, a nitrogenous base, carbohydrate, and proteins.
The lipids that come under complex or compound lipids are a) phospholipids: They contain phosphoric acid and nitrogenous base,
- Glycolipids: They are again of two types, glycerol and sphingo phospholipids
- Lipoproteins: This is the combination of lipids with proteins
- Other complexes that include sulfolipids, amino lipids, lipopolysaccharide, etc.

> Derived lipids: This included glycerol, alcohol, and fatty acids. Examples of this are lipid-soluble vitamins, steroid hormones, hydrocarbons, and ketone bodies.

> Miscellaneous lipids: They include carotenoids and hydrocarbons such as pentacosane and terpenes.
- Neutral lipids: Lipids which are uncharged are referred to as neutral lipids.

Hence, the correct answer is option (B).

Note: The structural and functional unit of the lipids are fatty acids and based on the presence of a number of bonds between the carbon atoms, the fatty acids are divided into saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, where saturation fatty acids contain a double bond, and unsaturation do not contain a double bond.