Chapter 3: Fatty Acyl Esters and Amides
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Published:02 Dec 2014
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Tandem Mass Spectrometry of Lipids, Robert C Murphy, 2014, ch. 3, pp. 75-104.
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A wide variety of esters and amide lipids are found in biological systems where the fatty acyl moiety is derivatized by a rather straightforward condensation reaction with various alcohols or amines. The structures of these derivatives can be fairly simple, but in some case, such as the case of the fatty acyl thioesters of coenzyme A, very complex lipids can result. Mass spectrometry continues to play a central role in structural characterization of these naturally occurring fatty acid derivatives and with the development of electrospray ionization, the very complex and most polar esters/amides can be readily analyzed as to their molecular weight and elemental composition when using high resolution mass analysis. This chapter will cover amides, carnitine esters, coenzyme A thioesters (fatty acyl CoA), and wax esters.