chemistry

Phosphorylethanolamine

Phosphorylethanolamine is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Phosphorylethanolamine rather than just read about it. In short: Phosphorylethanolamine or phosphoethanolamine is an ethanolamine derivative that is used to construct two different categories of phospholipids. One category termed a glycerophospholipid and the other a sphingomyelin, or more specifically within the sphingomyelin class, a sphingophospholipid.

Key takeaways

Phosphorylethanolamine belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Phosphorylethanolamine to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Phosphorylethanolamine from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Phosphorylethanolamine or phosphoethanolamine is an ethanolamine derivative that is used to construct two different categories of phospholipids. One category termed a glycerophospholipid and the other a sphingomyelin, or more specifically within the sphingomyelin class, a sphingophospholipid. Phosphorylethanolamine is a polyprotic acid with two pKa values at 5.61 and 10.39. Phosphorylethanolamine has been falsely promoted as a cancer treatment.

Effectiveness As a potential drug, phosphorylethanolamine has undergone human clinical trials. These were halted when no evidence of benefit was found. Edzard Ernst has called phosphorylethanolamine "the most peculiar case of Brazilian quackery".

Legality There has been ongoing controversy and litigation in Brazil with regard to its use as a cancer treatment without approval by the National Health Surveillance Agency. For years, Gilberto Chierice, a Chemistry Professor at the São Carlos campus of the University of São Paulo, used resources from a campus laboratory to unofficially manufacture, distribute, and promote the drug to cancer patients without it having gone through clinical testing. In September 2015, university administrators began preventing the Professor from continuing with this practice. In October 2015, several courts in Brazil ruled in favor of plaintiffs who wanted the right to try the compound. However, a state court overturned the lower courts' decision a month later. Jailson Bittencourt de Andrade, secretary for Brazil's science and technology ministry, said the ministry plans to fund further research on the compound, but that it will be years before a determination can be made about phosphorylethanolamine's safety and efficacy in humans. On April 14, 2016, a law was passed in Brazil allowing the use of synthetic phosphorylethanolamine for cancer treatment, despite opposition from the Brazilian Medical Association, the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology, and the regulatory agency Anvisa. However, shortly after, the country's Supreme Court suspended the law.

See also Phosphocholine Phosphoserine Lipid A phosphoethanolamine transferase MCR-1

References

Additional images

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Phosphorylethanolamine

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Phosphorylethanolamine claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Phosphorylethanolamine before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Phosphorylethanolamine ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Phosphorylethanolamine

In research: Phosphorylethanolamine appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Phosphorylethanolamine in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Phosphorylethanolamine is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Alternative cancer treatments, Aminoethyl compounds, Health fraud, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Phosphorylethanolamine outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Phosphorylethanolamine in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Phosphorylethanolamine means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Phosphorylethanolamine out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Phosphorylethanolamine in simple terms?

Why does Phosphorylethanolamine matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Phosphorylethanolamine?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Phosphorylethanolamine.