 Type of organic compound |
A sterol is any organic compound with a skeleton closely related to cholestan-3-ol and having a hydroxyl group at carbon 3. The simplest sterol is gonan-3-ol, which has a formula of C
17H
28O, and is derived from that of gonane by replacement of a hydrogen atom on C3 position by a hydroxyl group. It is therefore an alcohol of gonane.123
More generally, any compounds that contain the gonane structure, additional functional groups, and/or modified ring systems derived from gonane are called steroids. Therefore, sterols are a subgroup of the steroids. They occur naturally in most eukaryotes, including plants, animals, and fungi, and can also be produced by some (but likely with different functions). The most familiar type of animal sterol is , which is vital to the structure of the , and functions as a precursor to and . While technically alcohols, sterols are classified by as ( in the broader sense of the term).
