EXAMS AND ME : Lecithin

First Organic Phosphorus Compound: Lecithin

The first organic phosphorus compound to be identified was probably lecithin, isolated from brain fat in 1811 by Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763- 1829).

It was characterized as a phosphorus-containing lipid by Nicolas Théodore Gobley (1811-1876) in 1850.The first phospholipid identified as such in biological tissues was lecithin, or phosphatidylcholine, in the egg yolk, by Theodore Nicolas Gobley, a French chemist and pharmacist, in 1847.

Theodore Nicolas Gobley (1816-1878), a French pharmacist and chemist, carried on extensive research on the composition of the brain, egg yolk, and eggs and sperm of carp, which culminated in the discovery of lecithin. After some experiments with egg yolk he was able to separate a group of known compounds together with glycerophosphoric acid, an albuminoidal matter (vitelline, similar to the white of the egg), and a nitrogenous substance different from albumin. His results indicated that the viscous matter of egg yolk was identical with the viscous matter present in brain (human, chicken and sheep); it contained the same two fatty material found in the brain, which eventually he identified as lecithin and cerebrine. Gobley also analyzed the fatty material contained in blood and found that it contained olein, margarine, cholesterol, lecithin, and cerebrine. This cholesterol was analogous with that of egg yolk and biliary calculi. He also found that cholesterol and lecithin were the main fatty material present in bile and were almost completely absorbed in the intestine.