Kurdistan Regional Government

Ministry of Higher Education

University of Garmian
College of Agricultural Engineering
Sciences
Animal Production Department

Subject:

Biochemistry

Report Title:
Type of Lipids

Prepared by:
Aga Kurdistan Hamid

Supervised by:
Mr. Arkan Mohamed

Second year (first semester)

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Types of Lipids
There are three types of lipids in the body, triglycerides, phospholipids and sterols.

Triglycerides are also known as triacylglycerol and compose 95% of fat in the foods
we eat. Triglycerides are also the main fats we store in our body. When you pinch an
inch around your waist, you are pinching triglycerides.

Phospholipids bring water and fat together and are called emulsifiers. Phospholipids
make up cell membranes and lipid carrier molecules.

Sterols are found in tissues of animals and plants. The most well known sterol in our
body is cholesterol. Cholesterol makes up bile, hormones and vitamin D.

Triglycerides (fats)
Fat is just one type of lipid and an abbreviation for fatty acids. Three fatty acids
attach to glycerol to create a triglycerides, also called triacylglycerol. Phospholipids
and sterols are not fats. Sterols are lipids and triglycerides are lipids, but cholesterol
is not a fat. Calling cholesterol a fat is like calling a resident of Sulaymaniah, a
Hawler resident. Both resident of Sulaymaniah and Hawler resident are Kurdish,
but people of Sulaymaniah are not people of Hawler, and people of Hawler are not
people of Sulaymaniah.

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Saturated fatty acid structure

Saturated, mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids

Saturated fats are solid at room temperature, examples are butter, coconut oil and
animal fat. The highlighted purple structure in the image to the right represents a
saturated fat. This structure is simply a bunch of carbons joined together (carbons
are not shown) and they are saturated with hydrogen. A carbon has four places to
form a bond and in a saturated fat, a carbon will join with another carbon on either
side. That fills up two spots, this leaves two free. When the fatty acid is fully
saturated, this means hydrogen takes up those other spots. A fully saturated fatty
acid is solid at room temperature. It is more stable.

Double bond: carbon in blue and hydrogen in purple

To understand this concept better, look at the illustration to the left. In the top
image, carbon is shown in blue and there are four bonding points for each carbon.
Notice how the carbons are bonded to each other and the remaining three bonding
spots are taken up by hydrogen. The carbons are fully saturated with hydrogen.

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Now look at the lower image, carbon has four bonding spots, but two spots are
taken by the double bond between the carbons. This means the carbons only have
two spots left to bond hydrogen. These carbons are not fully saturated and in a fatty
acid, would be termed unsaturated. Fatty acids with double bonds are less stable
than those that are fully saturated.

Monounsaturated fatty acid structure

Look back to the image of the three types of fatty acids. The highlighted olive
green structure in the image above is a monounsaturated fatty acid.
A monounsaturated fat (MUFAs) is a fatty acid with one point of unsaturation.
Mono means one. What this means is that there is one double bond. In the image,
the double bond is represented by two parallel lines. It's called a point of
unsaturation because these two carbons are not fully saturated with hydrogen. The
carbons are double bonded to each other.

Polyunsaturated fatty acid structure

Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFAs) means that there's more than one double
bond. This means that there is more than one point of unsaturation. Polyunsaturated
fatty acids are named by their first point of unsaturation. If you look back up at the
fatty acid image, the polyunsaturated fatty acid is represented in blue. For example,
alpha linolenic acid has double bonds at the 9th, 12th and 15th carbons and the
chemical name is 9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid.

Fatty Acids in Oils

Unsaturated fats and this includes monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated
fatty acids, are liquid at room temperature, examples are olive oil and canola oil.
Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, our essential fatty acids, are polyunsaturated
fatty acids. The first double bond starts at the 3rd carbon in omega-3 fatty acids and
the first double bond starts at the 6th carbon in omega-6 fatty acids.

Different oils have different compositions of various fatty acids. You might hear
that olive oil is all monounsaturated fatty acids and canola oil is made up of omega-
3 fatty acids (PUFAs). The reality is, most foods contain a variety of both saturated
and unsaturated fatty acids. Both monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats,
omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids.

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In the chart below, the blue represents a saturated fatty acid. Red is a
monounsaturated fatty acid. Omega-6 fatty acids are represented by green and
omega-3 fatty acids by purple. Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are
polyunsaturated fatty acids. Take a look at flaxseed oil, you can see that flaxseed is
mostly composed of omega-3 fatty acids, but still contain a fair amount of
monounsaturated fatty acids shown in red and small amounts of omega-6 fatty
acids and saturated fatty acids. Corn oil is mostly omega-6 fatty acids shown in
green, but also has saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids and a tiny bit of
omega-3 fatty acids. Olive oil is known for being a good source of
monounsaturated fatty acids, shown in red, but notice that olive oil has small
amounts of the other fatty acids as well. Lastly, take a look at coconut oil, known to
be higher in saturated fatty acids, shown in blue. There are small amounts of
monounsaturated fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids, but no omega-3 fatty acids.
Understanding that foods contain multiple types of fatty acids is important. For
example individuals will consume walnuts when hearing that they are a good
source of omega-3 fatty acids, but walnuts actually have 4 times as much omega-6
fatty acid as they do omega-3 fatty acids.

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Sterols
The most common sterol in the body is cholesterol. Most people think of
cholesterol as just being bad for health, but cholesterol is essential for life. But, it's
not essential to our diet because the body can make cholesterol. Cholesterol is part
of our cell membranes and nerve sheaths. We make bile from cholesterol and our
steroid hormones are made from cholesterol. Vitamin D starts as a cholesterol in
your skin which is activated by UV light. Below is diagram of cholesterol as an
integral part of the cell membrane.

Cholesterol as part of the cell membrane

Phospholipids
Phospholipids are emulsifiers, they have the ability to bring water and fat together,
two substances which normally do not combine. An example is lecithin. The next
time you're at the grocery store pick up a salad dressing and you will most likely
see lecithin in the ingredient list. In the body, phospholipids act as a lipid bilayer in
the cell membrane. Most cells will have some sort of phospholipid membrane.

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References
1. Sizer, F. Whitney E. The Lipids: Fats, Oils, Phospholipids and Sterols. In:
Nutrition Concepts and Controversies. 13 ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. 2014.

2. National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Release 28. The National
Agricultural Library. United State Department of Agriculture. Last accessed
April 2, 2016.

3. Cholesterol illustration by Dhatfield on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

4. Saturated fatty acids by Calvero, polyunsaturated fatty acid by Edgar

181, monounsaturated fatty acid, all in the public domain.
5. Carbon double bond image created by Christine Dobrowolski, CC BY-NC-SA
2.0.
6. Fatty acid chart created by Christine Dobrowolski using the National Nutrient
Database for Standard Reference, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.