Organic Chemistry: Concepts and Applications - Headley Allan D. 2020

Synthetic Polymers and Biopolymers
20.21 Properties and Reactions of Phospholipids

An example of the basic structure of phospholipids is shown in Figure 20.5, and as you can imagine, there are different variations that can be made on the side chains that will result in different phospholipids. Phospholipids are compounds of biological importance. For example, lecithin is used in treating memory disorders, such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease; the structure of lecithin is shown in Figure 20.5.

The reactions that phospholipids undergo are similar to that of esters, specifically hydrolysis of the ester functionality, as shown below.