Lipids are a class of hydrocarbon-containing organic compounds.

Lipids are categorized by the fact that they are soluble in nonpolar solvents (such as ether and chloroform) and are relatively insoluble in water.

Lipid molecules have these properties because they consist of mainly carbon.

Some lipids are used for energy storage, others serve as structural components of cell membranes, and some are important hormones.

Although the term lipid is often used as a synonym for fat, the latter is in fact a subgroup of lipids called triglycerides..

For more information about the topic Lipid, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Cell membrane — A cell membrane, plasma membrane or plasmalemma is a selectively permeable lipid bilayer coated by proteins which comprises the outer layer of a ...  > read more

Unsaturated fat — An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bond in the fatty acid chain. A fat molecule is monounsaturated if it ...  > read more

Saturated fat — Saturated fat is fat that consists of triglycerides containing only saturated fatty acids. Diets high in saturated fat correlate in some studies with ...  > read more

Organelle — In cell biology, an organelle is one of several structures with specialized functions, suspended in the cytoplasm of a eukaryotic cell. Eukaryotes ...  > read more

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