Glycerophospholipids or phos­phatides are the most common phospholipids, in which one of the primary alcohol group (-CH2OH) of glycerol forms an ester with phosphoric acid. Thus, they consist of an alcohol (glycerol), a phosphoric acid (forming the polar ‘head’) and two fatty acid molecules (forming the non-polar hy­drocarbon ‘tail’)

They are often linked to additional nitrogenous groups like choline (in lecithin) ethanol amine (in cephalin), serine of non-nitrogenous inositol (in phosphatidyl inositol).

They play important structural and presumably functional role in rmembrarres. In fact, they are arranged in double layer in cell membranes and also form a bilayer in aqueous medium, separating the oil and water phases.