JibbyDee
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Registered: 25-11-2011
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Experimenting with lecithin
I've been taking lecithin as a choline supplement as well as its antioxidant properties. I noticed it has quite the molecular structure:
so naturally, having a depraved urge to hydrolyse every hydrolysable compound I come across, I must hydrolyse it. So there are two carboxyl esters and
one phosphate ester that I can hydrolyse. I'm not very interested in two fatty acid fragments or the glycerol fragment this will yield, but I'm
interested in the ammonium phosphate betaine fragment. Ethyltrimethylammonium phosphate. I have no idea where I'm going with this, like I said I'm
just satisfying my urge to hydrolyze this compound, does anyone have any ideas on what I can use this betaine for? I've never tried isolating a
betaine for, I know very little about them besides that they make good osmolytes.
EDIT: I didn't think this through, the phosphate group has 2 hydrolyzable atoms so hydrolysing it will yield choline and phosphoric acid, not a
betaine. Is there a way to selectively hydrolyze only the carboxylic esters, leaving the phosphate ester intact?
[Edited on 11-12-2011 by JibbyDee]
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zoombafu
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Registered: 21-11-2011
Location: U.S.
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It almost looks like a dancing person!
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Endimion17
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Just as any phospholipid molecule in cell membranes...
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