Glycolipids

Abstract Glycolipid is the general term applied to a wide range of compounds. The most important and complex are of biological origin, being distributed throughout animal, plant, and microbial cells, but some synthetic examples have industrial applications. Along with glycoproteins, they form the class of glycoconjugates. The carbohydrate, or ‘glyco-components are oligo saccharide chains which are frequently branched. They can also carry covalently-bound, non-carbohydrate substituents such as acetate or sulfate groups. It is the precise carbohydrate structure which confers the biological specificity to a particular glycolipid.