bile acid

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Any of the liver-generated steroid acids, such as cholic acid, that commonly occur in the bile in combination with glycine and taurine as sodium salts.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun any of the steroid acids produced by the liver, such as cholic acid, that occur in bile as sodium salts and serve to neutralize the contents of the stomach as they enter the duodenum and to aid the emulsification and absorption of fats

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun any of the steroid acids generated in the liver and stored with bile