Natural Fat Burning!

One of organic compounds reponsable of the hydrophobicity of soil are, the named as lipids. In this family are collected compounds such as, the waxes, which at the same time, are made up by fatty acids, alkanes/alkenes pairs and alkanoic acids compounds, being these the most important. These compounds are added in soil when the litter, mainly leaves, begins breaking down. The photograph shows the lipid extracts, during the derivatitation process, of a burned soil under cork oak (Quercus suber) and its control (unburned), with the same characteristics. Each one of samples was sieved in different sand size fractions. Unburned lipid extracts show a yellow-greenish coloration, which may be indicating that these compounds are coming from the plants (epicuticular waxes). On the other hand, burned lipid extracts show a orange-reddish coloration. This coloration may be showing the alteration carried out by the wildfire (two years ago) on these kind of compounds.