Soy Lecithin

Where did lecithin get its name? Was it named after some brilliant scientist who discovered it while working night and day in a lab? Actually, the real story is a little blander than that. Lecithin actually comes from lekithos, which is the Greek word for “egg yolk.”

Now, why of all things would anyone name it after something so commonplace as an egg yolk? The reason is pretty straightforward: Because that is where French scientist Maurice Gobley first found lecithin. The year was 1805 and the scientist had just extracted a fat-like substance the yolk of an egg, which he quickly discovered contained properties very similar to those of an emulsifier.



Since then, the primary source for commercial lecithin had always been eggs. That was, until the 1930s came when it was found that soy lecithin could also be recovered from the waste product of soybean processing.

Today only very few people distinguish between soy lecithin and egg lecithin. The word has been used as a generic term referring to a whole class of fat and water soluble compounds called phospholipids.
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