SOURCES OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS

All organic compounds as  one time came from plants or animals many of our  most
important substance  are still derived from these sources directly or indirectly.

1) PLANTS AND ANIMALS

     Many organic compounds are obtained directly from plant and animals sources by
suitable method of distillation. A few familiar EXAMPLE are carbohydrates (cellulose,
sugar, and starches.) proteins (silk, wool, casein, and food proteins) fats and oils(cotton,
soybean oils lard, butter) alkaloids (quinine ,morphine, strychnine) hormones, vitamins
perfumes, flavour and resins.

2) NATURAL GAS AND PETROLEUM.

             Natural gas and petroleum are now the major sources of organic compounds .
They are used as fuels  and also, through synthetic organic reaction for the production of
hundreds of useful organic substances such as solvents, synthetic rubber, explosive and
plastic.

3)   COAL
           Coal is another major sources of organic compounds. It yield coke and coal-tar on
pyrolysis or destructive distillation. More then 200  organic compounds have been directly
isolated from coal-tar. These coal-tar products from the starting materials for the
manufacture of thousands of useful aromatic compounds including perfumes, drugs, dyes,
photographic developers.

4)   SYNTHESIS.
      Simple organic compounds derived from petroleum or coal have been converted into
thousands of useful materials by synthetic method many EXAMPLE might be cited of
synthetic organic compounds replacing those obtained from natural sources, such as dyes,
rubber, fibers, plastic ,drugs, vitamins. In many  cases the synthetic materials are
superior to the natural compounds replaced for example, synthetic dyes are superior to
those of natural origin. In other cases the synthetic materials are entirely unknown in
nature and fill the requirements not satisfied are entirely other sources EXAMPLES are
etherglycol, aspirin, and sulphur drugs, synthetic organic chemistry touches almost every
phase of life.