**2.5 Phytosterols and phytostanols**

Phytosterols and phytostanols are biologically active compounds regularly found in plants and various foods of plant origin. Phytosterols differ from cholesterol in that they have a different elemental distribution in the side chain that forms their chemical structure (**Figure 4**), whereas phytostanols are 5α-saturated derivatives of phytosterols [88]. These structural changes, although minimal, make phytosterols, phytostanols, and cholesterol have particular physicochemical characteristics and differentiate them from each other metabolically and functionally.

Phytosterols and phytostanols are not synthesized by the human body [89, 90]; therefore, they must be supplied to the body through the intake of foods rich in these compounds. The main food sources of phytosterols are vegetable oils, fats, and edible fatty derivatives [91, 92], as well as nuts [93], cereals and derivatives [92], and vegetables [94]. The most abundant phytosterols and phytostanols in the human diet are β-sitosterol, campesterol, sitostanol, and campestanol [95].

D × P CPO contains a substantial amount of natural sterols (325–527 mg·kg−1) [36], mainly constituted by β-sitosterol (46.55 ± 0.93%), campesterol (31.91 ± 0.5%), and stigmasterol (21.54 ± 0.86%) [59]. Similarly, concentrations between 735 and 1135 mg·kg−1 of these compounds have been found in O × G CPO extracted from the Coari × La Mé hybrid cultivar, with β-carotene accounting for approximately 63% of the total sterols [33].

#### **Figure 4.**

*Phytosterols most abundant in palm oil and cholesterol. Chemical structured developed in ACD/CHEMSktech software [51].*
