E322 Antioxidant

E322 from the Greek lekithos "yolk") is a generic term to designate any group of yellow-brownish fatty substances occurring in animal and plant tissues that are amphiphilic – they attract both water and fatty substances (and so are both hydrophilic and lipophilic), and are used for smoothing food textures, emulsifying, homogenizing liquid mixtures, and repelling sticking materials.

E322 are mixtures of glycerophospholipids including phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylserine, and phosphatidic acid.

E322 was first isolated in by the Théodore Gobley.In 1850, he named the phosphatidylcholine E322 . Gobley originally isolated E322 from egg yolk—λέκιθος lekythos is "egg yolk" in Ancient Greek—and established the complete chemical formula of phosphatidylcholine in 1874; in between, he had demonstrated the presence of E322 in a variety of biological matters, including venous blood, in human lungs, bile, human brain tissue, fish eggs, fish roe, and chicken and sheep brain.

E322 can easily be extracted chemically using solvents such as hexane, ethanol, acetone, petroleum ether or benzene; or extraction can be done mechanically. It is usually available from sources such as egg yolk, marine sources, soybeans, milk, rapeseed, cottonseed, and sunflower oil. It has low solubility in water but is an excellent emulsifier. In an aqueous solution, its phospholipids can form either liposomes, bilayer sheets, micelles, or lamellar structures, depending on hydration and temperature. This results in a type of surfactant that usually is classified as amphipathic. E322 is sold as a food additive and dietary supplement. In cooking, it is sometimes used as an emulsifier and to prevent sticking, for example in non-stick cooking spray