Document Markup
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/strict.dtd">
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<link rel ="shortcut icon" href="images/favicon.ico">
<link rel ="icon" href="images/favicon.ico">
<title>Cholesterol in plants</title>
<LINK REL=StyleSheet HREF="style.css" TYPE="text/css" MEDIA=all>
<style type="text/css" media="screen" title="Red background">
<!--
p.shout {
background: yellow;
color: #3333cc;
margin: 2em 12px 0 12px;
padding: 4px 3px 4px 3px;
}
-->
</style>
<meta name="description" content="A basic biochemical mistake that frequently occur in standard textbooks">
<meta name="keywords" content="biochemistry, mistakes, howlers, cholesterol, plants">
<link rel=home href="homepage.htm" title="Home page">
<link rel=first href="stereo.htm" title="First page in this series">
<link rel=prev href="glycogen.htm" title="Previous page in this series">
<link rel=up href="howler0.htm" title="Parent page in the hierarchy">
<link rel=copyright href="copy.htm" title="Copyright information">
<link rel=help href="help.htm" title="Navigation help">
<link rel=author href="mailto:acornish@ibsm.cnrs-mrs.fr" title="Email the author">
</head>
<body>
<form METHOD=POST ACTION="http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi">
<table class="searchform">
<tr><td class="searchform" align="left"><a name="top"></a>
<a accesskey="S" href="howler0.htm">Howlers</a> >
<span title="You are here">Cholesterol
</span></td>
<td class="searchform" align="right">
<input type=text name="Gw" SIZE="35" MAXLENGTH="225">
<input type="submit" value="Search">
<p class="invisible"><a href="homepage.htm" accesskey="H"> </a>
<input type=hidden name="n" value="5">
<input type=hidden name="d" value="http://bip.cnrs-mrs.fr/bip10/">
</td></tr></table>
</form>
<h1 class="top">Cholesterol in plants</h1>
<p class="header">This page discusses the cholesterol content of plants, and
is one of a series that discuss
common errors in current textbooks of biochemistry.</p>
<p class="shout"><br>The other pages in this series are in <strong>urgent need of updating</strong>
(and the information in this one needs to be checked in the light of all current textbooks).
The biochemical principles have not changed, of course, but textbooks have: some of
those that were current when I first prepared these pages in 2000 have appeared in new editions, and
others have ceased to be widely used. New books have appeared that are not discussed. Unfortunately
I do not have easy access to any of the commonly used textbooks, as I work in a research (not teaching)
environment in a country where English is not the everyday working language. I could buy them, of course,
but that would represent rather a large investment for the sake of a few web pages.<br><br>Accordingly
I should be grateful if someone would collaborate with me in the revision. If you have access to
all of the textbooks published in English in the past ten years (say 1996 or later)
that are commonly used for teaching biochemistry, and if you would like to
help, please contact me at acornish@ibsm.cnrs-mrs.fr.
<h2 class="framed">Sterols in plants</h2>
<div class="sidebar-medium">
<p class="in-sidebar"><strong>Other errors</strong><br>
<p class="in-sidebar"><a href="stereo0.htm">Stereochemical prefixes</a>
<p class="in-sidebar"><a href="liverhk0.htm">Liver hexokinase</a>
<p class="in-sidebar"><a href="asympt.htm">Michaelis–Menten kinetics</a>
<p class="in-sidebar"><a href="effic0.htm">Metabolic <q>efficiency</q></a>
<p class="in-sidebar"><a href="zwitter.htm">Uncharged amino acids</a>
<p class="in-sidebar"><a href="rls0.htm">Control of glycolysis</a>
<p class="in-sidebar"><a href="glycogen0.htm">Structure of glycogen</a>
</div>
<p>Behrman and Gopalan (2005) suggest the following as an accurate account of the real sterol
content of plants:
<p class="quotation">More than 250 steroids have been described in plants. Of these, perhaps
sitosterol, which differs from cholesterol by an ethyl substituent at position 24, is the most
common. But plants also contain cholesterol both free and esterified. Cholesterol occurs as a
component of plant membranes and as part of the surface lipids of leaves where it is sometimes the
major sterol. The quantity of cholesterol is generally small when expressed a percent of total lipid.
While cholesterol averages perhaps 50 mg/kg total lipid in plants, it can be as high as 5 g/kg (or more)
in animals.
<h2 class="framed">Examples of the problem</h2>
<p>Textbooks typically assert that plants do not contain cholesterol, for example,
<p>According to <a href="howler.htm#horton">Horton <cite>et al.</cite></a> (2002, p. 275),
<p class="quotation">Cholesterol ... is only rarely found in plants.
<p>Similarly, <a href="howler.htm#zubay">Zubay</a> (p. 385) says that
<p class="quotation">Plant cells have no cholesterol.
<p>Other books make statements that are partially correct. For example <a href="howler.htm#voet">Voet and
Voet</a> (2004, p. 389) follow a correct sentence by one that is more dubious:
<p class="quotation">Plants contain little cholesterol. Rather, the most common sterol
components of their membranes are stigmasterol and β-sitosterol.
<h2 class="framed">Why does it matter?</h2>
<p>Correct appreciation of the cholesterol content of different food components is important because
diets are often intended to control cholesterol intake, and need to be based on true information.
Although the cholesterol content of plants is typically much less than that of animals it is by no means
negligible: It can be as high as 5 g cholesterol per kilogram of total lipids in animals, but averages
about 50 mg cholesterol per kg of total lipids in plants, and is much lower than this average in
certain oils. For example olive oil typically contains 0.5–2 mg cholesterol per kg and
sesame oil about 1 mg cholesterol per kg. For designing diets it is also important to understand
that labelling laws in the USA (and probably elsewhere) allow amounts less than 2 mg per serving to be shown
as <q>zero</q>.
<h2 class="framed">Further reading</h2>
<p>I am grateful to Dr E. J. Behrman, of the Ohio State University, for bringing this problem to
my attention. The information given here is based on the following forthcoming article:
<p>E. J. Behrman and V. Gopalan (2005) Cholesterol and plants
<cite><acronym class="deja" title="Journal of Chemical Education">J. Chem. Educ.</acronym></cite> in press.
<h2 class="framed">Textbook checklist</h2>
<p>The list is not complete, because not all the textbooks referred to on other pages have been checked,
and those that have been checked are in some cases of more recent publication than those referred to on
other pages.
<div class="table">
<table>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#abeles">Abeles, Frey and Jencks</a></td>
<td valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><em>(not examined)</em></td>
<td valign="top"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#campbell">Campbell</a></td>
<td valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><em>(not examined)</em></td>
<td valign="top"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#garrett">Garrett and Grisham</a> (2005)</td>
<td valign="top"><img src="images/yellowba.gif" alt="Poor" width="14" height="14" title="Partially incorrect"></td>
<td valign="top">Incorrect in part</td>
<td valign="top">p. 263</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#horton">Horton <cite>et al.</cite></a> (2002)</td>
<td valign="top"><img src="images/redball.gif" alt="Bad" width="14" height="14" title="Major error"></td>
<td valign="top">Cholesterol said to be only rarely found in plants</td>
<td valign="top">p. 232</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#lehninger">Nelson and Cox</a> (2000)</td>
<td valign="top"><img src="images/yellowba.gif" alt="Poor" width="14" height="14" title="Partially incorrect"></td>
<td valign="top">Correct information misleadingly presented</td>
<td valign="top">p. 309</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#mckee">McKee and McKee</a></td>
<td valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><em>(not examined)</em></td>
<td valign="top"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#mathews">Mathews, van Holde and Ahern</a></td>
<td valign="top"> </td>
<td valign="top"><em>(not examined)</em></td>
<td valign="top"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#stryer">Stryer</a> (2002)</td>
<td valign="top"><img src="images/yellowba.gif" alt="Poor" width="14" height="14" title="Partially incorrect"></td>
<td valign="top">Correct information presented in a way that invites misunderstanding</td>
<td valign="top">p. 325</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#voet">Voet and Voet</a> (2004)</td>
<td valign="top"><img src="images/yellowba.gif" alt="Poor" width="14" height="14" title="Partially incorrect"></td>
<td valign="top">Not quite correct</td>
<td valign="top">p. 389</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top"><a href="howler.htm#zubay">Zubay</a></td>
<td valign="top"><img src="images/redball.gif" alt="Bad" width="14" height="14" title="Major error"></td>
<td valign="top">Plant cell membranes said to have no cholesterol</td>
<td valign="top">p. 385</td>
</tr>
</table></div>
<hr>
<p><a href="howler.htm">Other common errors in textbooks</a>
<p><a href="howler.htm#boox">List of books considered</a>
<hr>
<div class="sidebar-tail">
<p class="in-tail">
Page created on 10 August 2005<br>
Last update: 22 December 2008<br>
Last significant update: 14 October 2005<br>
Comments and corrections to this page are welcome, and may be sent to <a href="mailto:acornish@ibsm.cnrs-mrs.fr">Athel Cornish-Bowden</a><br>
<a name="bottom"></a></div>
<p class="invisible"><a href="#top" accesskey="T"></a><a href="#bottom" accesskey="B"></a>
<a href="http://valet.webthing.com/page/validate?url=http://bip.cnrs-mrs.fr/bip10/choles.htm&parser=Any&resultsMode=traditional&parseMode=web#l20" accesskey="V"> </a>
</body>
</html>