JAMB - Chemistry (2003 - No. 16)

Organic solvents, such as alcohol, chloroform, petroleum ether, and hexane, can dissolve fats and oils. Other organic solvents that can dissolve fats include: benzene, diethylether, and tetrachloromethane. Kerosene also falls within this category of non-polar solvents.

Fats are insoluble in water because they are hydrophobic and do not have polar bonds. Water is a polar molecule, meaning that the oxygen atom has a partial negative charge and the hydrogen atoms have partial positive charges.