UNUSUAL LIPIDS - THE CERAMIDS

Among lipids, ceramides differentiate themselves by their physical pro perties, their chemical structure and their biological function. The s ynthesis of sphingoid bases, mainly sphingosine, has challenged organi c chemists for several decades. Scope and limitations of different met hods proposed for the preparation of these central building blocks of sphingolipids are reviewed. Making use of new reactants and catalysts, one can now obtain pure stereoisomers along a reduced number of steps . For practical purposes, the synthetic design can be further simplifi ed in order to obtain toiler-made compositions.