Ethanolamine phosphoglycerides, fatty acid

The complex lipids in milk fat are comprised of the phosphoglycerides, phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl serine, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and plasmalogens. Also, the non-glyceride phospholipid, sphingomyelin, occurs in important amounts (Jensen, 2002). Bitman and Wood (1990) described the distribution of phospholipid classes in bovine milk and their fatty acid composition. The phospholipids comprise about 1% and cholesterol 0.4—0.5% of the total milk fat. These occur almost completely in the milk fat globule membrane. 

Phosphoglycerides (the major phospholipids) contain glycerol, fatty acids, and phosphate. The phosphate is esterified to choline, serine, ethanolamine, or inositol. 

Martinez M. Ballabriga A, Gil-Gibernau JJ. Lipids of the developing human retina I. Total fatty acids, plasmologens, and fatty acid compostition of ethanolamine and choline phosphoglycerides. J Neurosci Res 1988- 20 484-490. 

Results are expressed as the percentage of total fatty acids in the fraction analyzed. PL, phospholipids TG, triglycerides CM, gray matter PE, ethanolamine phosphoglycerides TL, total lipids. Diet rich in ALA. 

Another class of glycerides are those substances in which one of the fatty acid groups has been replaced by a phosphoric acid residue the phospholipids, or more accurately, the phosphoglycerides. The phosphate group is almost always further esterified, usually with a biological amino alcohol, such as choline (the lecithins) or ethanolamine (the cephalins) ... 

In a study on 45 different species we found substantial variation in the acyl groups of the phosphoglycerides in the liver. The wide range of polyenoic fatty acid composition in the liver ethanolamine phosphoglyceride (EPG) is shown in Fig. 1, For example, the linoleate was 47% of the total fatty acids in the liver EPG from wild zebra, but less than 1% in marine fish. By contrast, there was a remarkable constancy of the fatty acids of the brain grey matter EPG (Fig. 2)(Crawford, Casperd Sinclair, 1976). 

Lecithin is a phosphoglyceride (phosphatide) natural product isolated commercially from soybean oil and, in much lower quantity, from egg yolks. The terminology is somewhat confused for historical reasons (7). While the term lecithin is sometimes used synonymously with a-phosphatidyl choline, it more correctly denotes a crude mixture also containing P-phosphatidyl choline and phosphatidyl esters of other compounds, chiefly ethanolamine, inositol, and serine. (While phosphatidyl choline and phosphatidyl ethano-lamine are amphoteric, phosphatidyl inositol and phosphatidyl serine are anionic.) For soybean lecithin, R and R represent C16 saturated fatty acid and Cjg saturated and unsaturated... 

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