Lipid Technology May 2010, Vol. 22, No. 5 119

Book Review

William W. Christie and Xianlin Han:Lipid Analysis – Isolation, Separation,Identification and Lipidomic Analysis(4th edition)Published in 2010 by The Oily Press, POBox 200, Bridgwater TA7 0YZ, EnglandThe book has 446 pages, 14 tables,97 figures, and 776 referencesPrice £85 or US$174www.pjbarnes.co.uk/op/books.htm

Lipid analysis has been evolving continu-ously over the last 50 years along withthe technology and development in thefield of biology, biochemistry and agri-culture. The last 10 years have been par-ticularly productive and were notablyinfluenced by the “democratization” ofmodern mass-spectrometry (MS).

The MS (r)evolution enables the detec-tion and quantification of molecularspecies of several lipids in complex sam-ples. The level of complexity has beendramatically increasing with these newapproaches, but educative programs inlipid analysis are seldom. It is thereforevery important for young as well as forthe more advanced analysts to be able tofind relevant, up-to-date informationrelated to the nature of lipids, extractionprocedures, and analytical methods.Timely, the fourth edition of “LipidAnalysis” co-edited by William W. Chris-tie and Xianlin Han answered the needfor clarification of conventional tech-niques, but has as well ventured intointroducing the more recent concepts.

The new edition of “Lipid Analysis” isdivided in five parts, dealing with basic

information on lipids and sample pre-paration techniques, separation of indi-vidual lipid classes, fatty acid analysis,analysis of individual lipid classes andMS analysis in lipidomics, respectively.It covers the broad range of methodsrequired to perform modern investiga-tion of lipid composition in varioustypes of samples. Experimental detailsand critical parameters are discussed.

Christie's and Han's book is very didac-tic, and as such should be very useful asa guide to get started with lipid analysis.However, this book can be as well recom-mended for use in teaching this fascinat-ing field to graduate students.

Fr�d�ric Destaillats, April 2010

i 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

DOI 10.1002/lite.201000021

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