Glycerides are lipid esters of the

Glycerides are lipid esters of the glycerol molecule and fatty acids. Their primary function is the storage of energy.Due to its structure and properties, glycerol participates in the formulation or synthesis of many compounds such asfood products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, liquid detergents. Monoglycerides (MGs) can be formed by bothindustrial chemical glycerolysis and biological or enzymatic processes. Chemical glycerolysis bring issues of lowMGs yield, high operating temperature, formation of undesirable by-products and high energy consumption. On theother hand enzymatic processes have advantages of mild reaction conditions and high purity of MGs. But, severalpurification steps are required to obtain food or pharmaceutical grade MG, such as neutralization of the reactionmedia and discoloration followed by expensive molecular distillation. The purpose of this article is to review the mainchallenges in the synthesis of MGs from triglycerides (TGs) contained in the various fixed oils and applicationthereof in the food and pharmaceuticals.