Explain the molecular basis for animal fat being solid at room temperature but vegetable oil being liquid are room temperature
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Lipids are made from Fatty Acids
Q4.2 - Explain the molecular basis for animal fat being solid at room temperature but vegetable oil being liquid are room temperature.
Lipids is a term used of chemically diverse group of biomolecules that have two things in common: low solubility in water and high solubility in non polar organic solvent.
Animal fat and vegetable oil fall into the category of simple fats or triglycerides. Triglycerides are fatty acid esters of glycerol, where three fatty acid molecules are linked to one glycerol via ester bond. Fatty acids are carboxylic acids with a long aliphatic carbon backbone. Glycerol is a polyhydroxy alcohol.
Fatty acids can also be classified into two type:
- Saturated: there are no double bonds in the carbon backbone.
- Monounsaturated: there is one double bond in the carbon backbone
- Poly unsaturated: more than one double bond in the carbon backbone
Fatty acids are also amphoteric, ie they have a polar region(the carboxyl group) and a non-polar region (the long aliphatic carbon backbone) within the same molecule.
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