ANSWERS: 1
  • Triglycerides are very common molecules found in vegetable oils and animal fats. They are important for energy transfer and storage. Having high levels of triglycerides in your body might be responsible for some diseases or heart problems.

    What are triglycerides?

    A triglyceride is a molecule with three (hence the tri- prefix) fatty acids attached to a glycerol molecule. They are joined in a process called esterification, where a hydroxyl compound reacts with an oxoacid. In this case, the hydroxyl is glycerol, and the oxoacids are the fatty acids, which vary among different kinds of triglycerides.

    What is a hydroxyl?

    A hydroxyl molecule is the combination of an oxygen atom and a hydrogen atom bonded covalently (which is the most powerful form of bond), creating an oxygen-hydrogen (OH) group that usually is pointing off the molecule. This causes the molecule to be polar, because an OH group is negatively charged (meaning it has positive and negative ends), which makes it more likely to react with other molecules, especially polar ones.

    What is glycerol?

    Glycerol is a common organic compound that is sweet-tasting and very common in chemical products. It is a combination of three OH groups and three groups of carbon and hydrogen atoms. A carbon-hydrogen (CH) molecule is in the center, and two molecules with one carbon and two hydrogen atoms are attached.

    What is an oxoacid and a fatty acid?

    An oxoacid is an acid that forms an ion readily by losing a proton. Fatty acids are types of oxoacids with an OH group and a separate oxygen atom bonded to them. The rest of the molecule can vary, but often it is formed of long chains of carbon atoms and hydrogen atoms (often even numbered). They can also be saturated or unsaturated, with saturated ones having no double bonds (stronger than single bonds).

    How are they formed?

    Triglycerides are formed when the glycerol molecule reacts with three fatty acids. Glycerol has three OH groups coming off of it, and a fatty acid forms an ester bond. When this happens, the OH group on the glycerol is replaced by an oxygen atom bonded with an alkoxy group (a compound of carbon and hydrogen atoms) from the fatty acid. With these bonds, the molecule is then a triglyceride.

    Source:

    University of Oxford Dept. of Chemistry

    BioChemInfo.org Glycerol

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