Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules That Changed History by Penny le Couteur & Jay Burreson

Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules That Changed History by Penny le Couteur & Jay Burreson

Author:Penny le Couteur & Jay Burreson [Couteur, Penny le & Burreson, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy & Social Aspects, Science, General, World, Chemistry, Popular Works, History
ISBN: 9781585423316
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2017-05-29T16:00:00+00:00


Folic acid with the middle portion from the p-aminobenzoic acid molecule outlined

Consider just the part of its structure shown inside the outlined box in the structure above. This middle portion of the folic acid molecule is derived (in bacteria that make their own folic acid) from a smaller molecule, p-aminobenzoic acid. p-Aminobenzoic acid is thus an essential nutrient for these microorganisms.

The chemical structures of p-aminobenzoic acid and sulfanilamide are remarkably similar in shape and size, and it is this similarity that accounts for the antimicrobial activity of sulfanilamide. The lengths (as indicated by the square brackets) of each of these molecules measured from the hydrogen of the NH2 group to the doubly bonded oxygen atom are within 3 percent of each other. As well they have almost the same width.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.