A five-step procedure is provided to help students in making the assignment absolute configuration less bothersome. Examples for both single (2-butanol) and multi-chiral carbon (3-chloro-2-butanol) molecules are included. (JN)

This article brings to the attention of chemists the toxicological properties of several important classes of organic compounds. (BB)

A simple model is described for the binding of ligands to macromolecules. The model is applied to the cooperative binding by hemoglobin and aspartate transcarbamylase. The sequential and allosteric models of cooperative binding are considered. (BB)

Suggests that most students approach organic chemistry classes with a certain amount of apprehension and try to just manage or memorize the material rather than understand it. Recommends the use of Bloom's taxonomy as a way to increase comprehension and gives an example of how to use it in an organic chemistry classroom. (SOE)

Epoxide chemistry is widely used in organic synthesis and regularly discussed in organic chemistry textbooks. An experiment to generate dimethyldioxirane in situ from acetone using Oxone is explained.

The experiment describes the regioselective synthesis of a stereodefined push-pull alkene from inexpensive chemicals. Important concepts in organic chemistry, such as resonance theory and role of solvent polarity on formation of intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds, which affect the configuration of the double bond in predictable way are…

Industrial application of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis is a powerful technique that could be used to elucidate components of a complex mixture while offering the benefits of high-precision quantitative analysis. The natural wintergreen oil is examined for its phenol concentration to determine the level of refining…

The synthesis of meso-octamethylporphyrinogen that involves a mini-scale preparation and uses acetone as reactant and also as solvent is presented. It results in a product of almost analytical grade directly from the reaction medium.

The reduction of ethyl acetoacetate using common baker's yeast is a traditional experiment that shows the stereoselective power of a biochemical system. Addition of organic solvents to aqueous reaction system increased the yields and reproducibility of the experiment thus overcoming the two problems associated with the experiment, low yield, and…

Dess-Martin periodinane oxidation is an experiment that provides an avenue to the introduction of Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy in organic chemistry curriculum as a diagnostic tool for examination of the results of a familiar reaction, and absolute configuration. From the experiment, students increased their understanding of CD theory and…