Lipases are found in all living organism, which constitutes the two divisions of the phylogenetci tree – archaea with second division branching into the eukarya, including animals, plants and fungi) and bacteria.
Lipase is present in human fat tissue and has also been found in the fat of chickens, turkeys, geese, rats, pigs, cattle, lambs, rabbits, dogs and seals. Lipase is also found in oil-bearing seeds such as castor bean, soybean, and flax seed, in wheat and barley seeds, and in the fungus Aspergillus flavus.
Lipolytic enzymes are indispensible for the biological breakdown of lipids. Enzymes from three sources are involved in the digestion of dietary lipids. These enzymes are food-bearing lipase, gastric lipase and pancreatic lipases.
Their physiological role is to hydrolyze triglycerides to diglycerides, monoglycerides, fatty acids and glycerol. They are required as digestive enzymes in the transfer of lipids from one another – from plant to animal and from animal to animal.
Lipases producing bacteria were reported nearly one century ago by the microbiologist C. Eijkmann but it is not until the 1950’s that the first works on fungal lipases were reported.
Lipases catalyze esterification, interesterification, acidolysis, alcoholysis and aminolysis in addition to the hydrolytic activity on triglycerides.
Lipolytic activity in the human stomach is primarily the result of gastric lipase secreted by cells of the corpus and fundus. Gastric lipase acts primarily at the outer ester linkages, thus producing fatty acids and diglycerides.
Enzyme lipase
