Origins of Organic Chemistry and Organic Synthesis

Abstract

The words organic and synthesis originate with Aristotle (meaning 'instrumental' and 'put together', respectively) but had different meanings over time. The iatrochemists prepared numerous pharmaceutical remedies in the 1600s but had no concept of organic chemistry. Buffon, Bergman and Gren defined organic bodies as living things in the 1700s, but discrete organic compounds remained unknown. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, organic natural products were isolated by Scheele, and Chevreuil separated carboxylic acids from saponification of fats. Organic chemistry had started. Lavoisier invented and Berzelius improved combustion analysis for organic characterization. Descartes' dictum that synthesis is required to prove an analysis was enacted by Bergman and others. The concept of organic chemistry changed radically when Wöhler and Kolbe prepared organic compounds from the elements. Berthelot's syntheses of non-natural fats in 1853 started modern synthetic organic chemistry as the chemistry of carbon compounds, regardless of whether occurring in Nature or not.

Chemical Degradation-Inspired Total Synthesis of the Antibiotic Macrodiolide, Luminamicin

“…Isolation studies of secondary metabolites from microorganisms often inspire chemists to investigate properties and strategies for their preparation . As a result, target-oriented synthesis has emerged as a platform for applying efficient strategies, developing new methodologies, and providing an unambiguous characterization of the natural product . Degradation studies have historically played an integral role in the structural characterization of natural products, for example, with the structural determination of quinine .…”

A tutorial on asymmetric electrocatalysis

“…A single-electron anodic oxidation results in umpolung of the enolate, delivering the rhodium-bound electrophilic a-carbonyl radical (32). This radical is then trapped by the nucleophilic silyl enol ether (27) to form a secondary ketyl radical (33). Upon a second anodic oxidation and desilylation, the enantioenriched product (30) is obtained, which could be further converted to the corresponding methyl ester (35).…”

“…Faraday discovered one of the first C–C bond-forming reactions in 1834, 26 generating ethane from the anodic decarboxylation of acetate, just six years after the landmark Wöhler urea synthesis. 27 Following a more detailed study by Kolbe in 1848, this oxidative double-decarboxylative coupling of carboxylic acids became known as the Kolbe electrolysis. 28 Kolbe also reported the first reductive organic electrosynthesis in 1845 when he electrolyzed trichloromethane sulfonic acid to provide the dechlorinated methyl sulfonic acid, employing zinc electrodes.…”

SOLVENTS: From Past to Present

“…Synthetic organic chemistry took root in 1828 with the synthesis of urea by Wohler and was quickly followed by the synthesis of many more molecules by scientists like Wohler, Kolbe, Liebig, Chevereuil, Lavoisier, etc., pioneers who laid the foundations of organic chemistry. 1 The history of solvents starts from the observance of residues of ethyl alcohol (ethanol) in a 13 000 years old brewery near Haifa in Israel. Neolithic people also left traces of alcohol in the pottery that is dated to be 9000 years old.…”