WAXES

1. These are monoglyceride compounds.
2. They are chemically inert (due to absence of double bonds) and insoluble in water.
3. On heating they become soft and pliable.
4. On cooling they turn hard and water resistant.
5. Waxes are common water repellent and lubricant lipids of plants and animals.
6. Most land plants possess wax as bloom over fruits and other soft organs. It is also a component of cuticle over leaf surfae for reducing transpiration.
7. In floating leaves the upper surface is covered by wax in order to prevent wetting and closing of stomata present on the upper surface.
8. Lanolin (= lanoline) or wool fat is a wax secreted by cutaneous glands in fur bearing animals for providing a protective water proof coating to fur.
9. Similarly water proof coating of wax occurs over feathers, human skin and insect skeleton.
10. Whale, which consumes plankton in large quantity, comes to store the same lubricating wax, spermaceti, used to be got form Sperm Whale. It is the hardest wax.
11. Bees wax is secreted by worker bees from their abdominal glands for building honey combs. It is formed by esterification of palmitic acid with mericyl and hexacosyl alcoholes. It's chemical name is meyricyl palmitate.
12. Candle wax is a mixture of paraffin was (from petropleum) and stearic acid.
13. Cerumen or ear wax is secreted by modified sweat glands or ceruminous glands present in the ear canal. It lubricates ear drum. It's more secretion is ciruminosis.