Phospholipid Technology and Applications
Edited by Frank D. Gunstone, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Dundee, Scotland.
April 2008. Hard cover.
213 pages, 45 figures, 28 tables and 553 references.
ISBN 978-0-9552512-2-1.
Volume 22 in The Oily Press Lipid Library.
Price £85 or US$174.
This is book number 22 in a series of pertinent, well-written and informative books from the Oily press (now part of Woodhead Publishing). It consists of eight chapters, 200 pages of text and a host of vital references. The 14 contributors are leaders in their respective fields.
The book is edited by the world respected eminence of the oils and fats world, Professor Frank Gunstone and this shows in the overall quality of the book.
In his preface to the book Professor Gunstone writes” Phospholipids are an important group of lipids with major areas of interest in biology, biochemistry and medicine, and also in science and technology. It is the latter that are emphasized in this book. The major source of phospholipids is the lecithin recovered during degumming of vegetable oils, particularly soybean oil. This crude material finds uses in its own right, but it can be purified through a series of processes that eventually lead to individual phospholipid classes such as the phosphatidylcholines.
It is widely accepted that oil and water do not mix, but there are several areas in science and technology where these two distinct phases must coexist in stable emulsions. This is achieved by admixture of amphiphilic molecules of which the phospholipids are important natural examples produced commercially at levels in excess of 250,000 tonnes per year. This property has been known for a long time by cooks who, while knowing little about lipid structure or amphiphilic systems, nevertheless recognized the importance of eggs (a rich source of phospholipids) in their recipes. Today phospholipids find many uses in the food industry and in other industries that exploit the amphiphilic nature of these compounds.
The early chapters in this book are devoted to the more common glycerol-based phospholipids and cover their structure, source, composition, modification by chemical and enzymatic methods, their physical, chemical, and nutritional properties, and their major uses. The final chapter is devoted to another kind of phospholipid – the sphingolipids – in which there is increasing global interest.
With its emphasis on science and technology, this book should be of special value to those in the food, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries.
Most of us in the food industry are well aware of lecithin and its uses and those of us familiar with health food stores have seen lecithin products and read about the health aspects. This book does an excellent job of combining knowledge about both sectors of interest, namely the food industry and the health products industry.
The book can be divided based on two typical, functional uses for phospholipids. The first addresses biological, health, and medical functions.
The chemical structure and biological functions of phospholipids (PL) are explained clearly and succinctly in Chapter 1. This is a complex subject presented in a clear and informative fashion.
The medical applications of PL are handled in Chapter 7 entitled `Clinical and nutritional properties of PL’. It is a short but informative chapter on the roles of PL in nutrition, health, and cell signal transmission, with numerous interesting literature references.
An excellent overview on sphingolipids is presented in Chapter 8. These functional PL in milk may become novel functional ingredients as metabolic agents in infant and health foods and medical therapies. Our own dairy industry, particularly Fonterra should find these chapters of immense interest. The second portion of the book addresses technical functionality, sourcing, and production.
In Chapter 2, a good review of the major sources, composition, and processing of vegetable and animal lecithins is well presented. Chapter 3 is on the enzymatic modification of PL and related polar lipids The detail in this chapter is sufficient to fire up any number of postgraduate Chemistry and Food Science students. The short Chapter 6 on chemical modification also is invaluable for providing the reader with good information about acetylation- and hydroxylation-processed lecithin and the technical uses for these types of lecithins.
Chapter 5 on physical properties covers the fundamental knowledge on the physical structure of PL at interfaces in emulsions, phase behaviour of single PL, and mixtures with cholesterol and medium-chain monoacylglycerols in aqueous systems. In dispersed systems, the formation of liposomes, reversed vesicles, and emulsions are well discussed, ending with the phospholipid organization in biomembranes. This chapter is a must for people working on emulsions both practically and in the research field.
This book is highly recommended for technologists in the food industry, for students, technicians, and scientists working with phospholipids or other surfactants in food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic applications. It is also important for biochemists and biologists with an interest in biomembranes and phospholipid in human health and functional foods.