CHAPTER I - Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry
Publisher SummaryThis chapter presents a brief discussion on the concepts of organic chemistry and biochemistry. Biochemistry concerns carbon compounds and their reactions as they occur in organisms. Organic chemistry, or the chemistry of carbon compounds, therefore, is basic to biochemistry. The great variety of organic compounds may be explained by the ease with which carbon atoms can attach to each other. As carbon is tetravalent, a great many possibilities for branching arise, leading to a staggering number of carbon skeletons. If the remaining valence bonds are filled with hydrogen, then the result is a hydrocarbon. A further reason for the great variability of organic compounds is found in the presence of functional groups. Salt formation, written analogously to ammonium ion formation, is the most important functional reaction of amino compounds.
P. KARLSON
Publication date: 1965/01/01