Abstract
THE fats constitute a large group of natural substances. They are present in plants and animals on land and water, both salt and fresh; they represent an important ingredient of our food. To the chemist they are compounds of glycerol with fatty acids, long straight-chain carbon compounds in an ascending series of numbers from C14 to C24, increasing by two carbons at a time. Nature has curious devices, eccentric habits; one of them is to ring the changes with relatively few substances, combined together in different ways, so as to produce a vast number of different fats, that is glycerides, characteristic of individual plants and animals. The process is akin to the infinite number of melodies which the pianist can produce on a few notes.
The Chemical Constitution of Natural Fats
By Prof. T. P. Hilditch. Pp. xi + 438. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1940.) 35s. net.
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ARMSTRONG, E. The Chemical Constitution of Natural Fats. Nature 145, 839–840 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145839a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145839a0
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