What is the main role of bile salts? Note: Bile salts are lipids. This makes sense because like dissolves like.

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Bile salts primarily act as detergents that emulsify fats in the small intestine. This emulsification breaks large fat droplets into many tiny droplets, dramatically increasing the surface area available for pancreatic lipase to work. With more surface exposed, triglycerides are efficiently hydrolyzed into free fatty acids and monoglycerides. Because bile salts are amphipathic, they also form micelles that shuttle these digestion products to the intestinal lining for absorption, including fat-soluble vitamins. They are not enzymes and do not digest carbohydrates or proteins, nor do they activate digestive enzymes. While often thought of as lipids, bile salts are amphipathic steroid derivatives whose detergent action enables lipid digestion and absorption.