Esters are formed in condensation reactions and broken by hydrolysis. Fats and oils, important compounds in our diet, are naturally occurring esters and their structure explains their properties.
Part ofChemistryRevise: Nature's chemistry
The breaking up of an ester can be achieved by heating the ester with an alkali such as sodium hydroxide.
This is an example of a hydrolysis reaction (the opposite of a condensation reaction) as a water molecule is added and breaks up the structure.