IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB384618008

Lipids, Chloroform, and Their Intertwined Histories (2022)

Carlos Ramírez (Author)

Substantia: An International Journal of the History of Chemistry
Volume: 6
Issue: 1
Pages: 133-143

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Chemical compounds Cellular biology Chemistry Biochemistry Organic chemistry 19th century 20th century

Lipids and their fatty acid constituents, in particular, have been the subject of academic and industrial research initiatives since their isolation by Michel-Eugène Chevreul in 1813. Fatty acids can be saturated or unsaturated, their physical properties depending on the aliphatic chain length and degree of saturation. They constitute the building blocks of many lipid groups, such as triglycerides and phospholipids; are key additives in commercial foods, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics; and can cross cell membranes. Chloroform was synthesized in 1831 by Samuel Guthrie and has had a tortuous history of interactions with mankind: from an anesthetic in obstetrics, dentistry, and surgery, to being labeled as a potential carcinogen in the 1970s. It has also had important nonmedical applications, such as in chemical engineering mass transfer systems designed to estimate binary gas diffusion coefficients. Although chemically dissimilar, lipids and chloroform intertwined their scientific paths through the work of Jordi Folch and associates in the 1940s-1950s, in which many lipid-based brain molecules were isolated and characterized. This article outlines the separate histories of lipids and chloroform, and those research initiatives in which they have acted synergistically. The narrative covers the interplay of chemical compounds with different historical backgrounds, but with physical properties which continue to foster their modern-day interaction.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB384618008/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Reinhard W. Hoffmann; (2018)
Classical Methods in Structure Elucidation of Natural Products (/isis/citation/CBB052430520/)

Article Sourkes, Theodore L.; (2004)
The Discovery of Lecithin, the First Phospholipid (/isis/citation/CBB000740503/)

Book Kirschke, Martin; (2001)
Liebigs Lehrer Karl W. G. Kastner (1783-1857): Eine Professorenkarriere in Zeiten naturwissenschaftlichen Umbruchs (/isis/citation/CBB000101522/)

Article Reynolds, Andrew; (2007)
The Cell's Journey: From Metaphorical to Literal Factory (/isis/citation/CBB001021848/)

Book Baudet, Jean; (2006)
La vie expliquée par la chimie: comment la biologie est devenue moléculaire (/isis/citation/CBB000720156/)

Book Russell, Colin Archibald; (2010)
From Atoms to Molecules: Studies in the History of Chemistry from the 19th Century (/isis/citation/CBB001220264/)

Article Aust, Rudolph; (2009)
Der schwierige Weg zum synthetischen Kautschuk---ein Weg mit Zufällen und Forschungsimpulsen (/isis/citation/CBB001220770/)

Article Ernst Kenndler; Norbert M. Maier; (2018)
Gas Chromatography and Analysis of Binding Media of Museum Objects: A Historical Perspective (/isis/citation/CBB597672207/)

Article Laura Colli; Antonio Guarna; (2018)
The dextrorotatory sweet asparagine of Arnaldo Piutti: the original product is conserved in Florence (/isis/citation/CBB447570859/)

Article Aleksander Sztejnberg; (2020)
Vladimir Nikolayevich Ipatieff (1867-1952) - The Eminent Russian-American Chemist of the First Half of the XX Century (/isis/citation/CBB385082069/)

Article Villani, Giovanni; (2014)
Structured System in Chemistry: Comparison with Mechanics and Biology (/isis/citation/CBB001420435/)

Article Mander, Lewis N.; Bennett, Martin A.; (2011)
Rodney Warren Rickards, 1934--2007 (/isis/citation/CBB001220651/)

Book Marco Fontani; Mary Virginia Orna; Mariagrazia Costa; (2015)
Chimica e chimici a Firenze: Dall’ultimo dei Medici al Padre del Centro Europeo di Risonanze Magnetiche (/isis/citation/CBB947393469/)

Book Neus, Julia; (2002)
Aromatizität: Geschichte und mathematische Analyse eines fundamentalen chemischen Begriffs (/isis/citation/CBB000300415/)

Book Giunta, Carmen; (2011)
Atoms in Chemistry: From Dalton's Predecessors to Complex Atoms and Beyond (/isis/citation/CBB001022729/)

Article Adams, Martin R.; (2017)
The Birth of Modern Industrial Microbiology: The Acetone–Butanol Fermentation (/isis/citation/CBB803744469/)

Chapter Evan Hepler-Smith; (2016)
Changing Names and Naming Change: Transformations in the “International Machinery” of Chemical Information (/isis/citation/CBB889111501/)

Article Johnstone, Rose; (2003)
A Sixty-Year Evolution of Biochemistry at McGill University (/isis/citation/CBB000650275/)

Chapter Kevin Fujitani; (2016)
A Child of Many Fathers: The Question of Credit for the Discovery of Thiamine, 1884-1936 (/isis/citation/CBB645381434/)

Article David R. Singleton; Rivers Singleton; (2017)
Remembering Our Forebears: Albert Jan Kluyver and the Unity of Life (/isis/citation/CBB766326866/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}