In the past several years significant advances have been made in our understanding of phospholipid functions. Several lines of clinical and experimental data suggest that phospholipids play important roles on cell functions and life activities. Its physiological importance can be attributed to at least three distinct functions. First, phospholipids maintain overall biomembranes by composing lipid bilayer. Second, phospholipid metabolites (eicosanoids etc.) are concerned in physiological reactions as chemical mediators. Third, phospholipid metabolites (inositol 3-phosphate, diacylglycerol, etc.) work as signal transducers in a cerebral nerve system and cells. In this article recent information on the roles and the functions of phospholipids will be reviewed. Because this topic is broad, we will focus on the role of phospholipids in lipoprotein metabolism and the effects of dietary phospholipids on liver and brain functions.

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Lysophospholipids (LPL) are present in most of starch granules of cereal grains, and formed complex with starch in the granules. The starch complexing abilities of lysophospholipids, monoacylglycerols and fatty acids contained in the starch were found to be independent of the straightchain structure and the steric hindrance by double bonds in fatty acids. The different starch complexing abilities for monoacylglycerols consisting of unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic acid or linoleic acid were reported. The starch complexing abilities of polyhydric alcohol monoesters consisting of unsaturated fatty acids were found to be similar to the abilities of the esters consisting of saturated fatty acids, and depend greatly on the dispersion methods, and then related to their micelle forming properties in the solution. In this review, studies of the starch complexing abilities of LPL contained in the starch, next, the minimum degrees of polymerization of amylose requiring for complex formation of monoacylglycerols and LPL, furthermore, the rheological properties of wheat starch gel blended with LPL and the application in food, were described.

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