Organic and

Biological
Chemistry
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
 Biochemistry For Nursing
BICH 200

Organic and Biological

Chemistry
Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
2
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Organic Chemistry
• Organic chemistry is the chemistry
of carbon compounds.
• Carbon has the ability to form long
chains.
• Without this property, large
biomolecules such as proteins,
lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic
acids could not form.
Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Hydrocarbons

• There are four basic

types of hydrocarbons:
– Alkanes
– Alkenes
– Alkynes
– Aromatic hydrocarbons

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Alkanes

• Alkanes contain only single bonds.

• They are also known as saturated hydrocarbons.
– They are ―saturated‖ with hydrogens.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Formulas
• Lewis structures of alkanes look like this.
• They are also called structural formulas.
• They are often not convenient, though…

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Formulas
…so more often condensed formulas are used.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Properties of Alkanes

• The only van der Waals force is the London

dispersion force.
• The boiling point increases with the length
Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
of the chain. © 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Isomers

Isomers have
the same
molecular
formulas, but the
atoms are
bonded in a
different order.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Organic Nomenclature
• There are three parts to a compound name:
– Base: This tells how many carbons are in the
longest continuous chain.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Organic Nomenclature
• There are three parts to a compound name:
– Base: This tells how many carbons are in the
longest continuous chain.
– Suffix: This tells what type of compound it is.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Organic Nomenclature
• There are three parts to a compound name:
– Base: This tells how many carbons are in the
longest continuous chain.
– Suffix: This tells what type of compound it is.
– Prefix: This tells what groups are attached to the
chain.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Cycloalkanes
• Carbon can also form ringed structures.
• Five- and six-membered rings are most stable.
– They can take on conformations in which their bond
angles are very close to the tetrahedral angle.
– Smaller rings are quite strained.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Reactions of Alkanes
• Alkanes are rather unreactive due to
the presence of only C—C and C—H
bonds.
• Therefore, they make great nonpolar
solvents.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Alkenes

• Alkenes contain at least one carbon–carbon

double bond.
• They are unsaturated.
– That is, they have fewer than the maximum number of
hydrogens.
Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Properties of Alkenes

Structure also affects the physical properties

of alkenes.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Nomenclature of Alkenes
• The chain is numbered so the double bond gets the
smallest possible number.
• cis-Alkenes have the carbons in the chain on the
same side of the molecule.
• trans-Alkenes have the carbons in the chain on
opposite sides of the molecule.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Reactions of Alkenes

• One reaction of alkenes is the addition

reaction.
– In it, two atoms (e.g., bromine) add across the
double bond.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Alkynes

• Alkynes contain at least one carbon–carbon triple

bond.
• The carbons in the triple bond.
• They are also unsaturated.
Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Nomenclature of Alkynes

4-methyl-2-pentyne

• The method for naming alkynes is analogous

to the naming of alkenes.
• However, the suffix is -yne rather than -ene.
Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Reactions of Alkynes
• Alkynes undergo many of the same reactions
alkenes do.
• As with alkenes, the addition reaction.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
 Aromatic Hydrocarbons

• Aromatic hydrocarbons are cyclic

hydrocarbons that have some particular
features.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Aromatic Nomenclature
Many aromatic
hydrocarbons are
known by their
common names.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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Reactions of Aromatic Compounds

• Due to this stabilization, aromatic compounds

do not undergo addition reactions; they
undergo substitution.
• In substitution reactions, hydrogen is
replaced by a substituent. Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Structure of Aromatic Compounds

• Two substituents on a benzene ring could

have three possible relationships:
– ortho-: On adjacent carbons.
– meta-: With one carbon between them.
Organic and
– para-: On opposite sides of ring. Biological
Chemistry
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Functional Groups
The term functional
group is used to
refer to parts of
organic molecules
where reactions
tend to occur.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Alcohols
• Alcohols contain one or more hydroxyl groups,
—OH.
• They are named
from the parent
hydrocarbon; the
suffix is changed to
-ol and a number
designates the
carbon to which the
hydroxyl is
attached. Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Alcohols
• Alcohols are much
more acidic than
hydrocarbons.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Ethers

• Ethers tend to be quite unreactive.

• Therefore, they are good polar solvents.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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Carbonyl Compounds
• The carbonyl group
is a carbon-oxygen
double bond.
• Carbonyl
compounds include
many classes of
compounds.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Aldehydes
In an aldehyde, at
least one hydrogen
is attached to the
carbonyl carbon.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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Ketones
In ketones, there
are two carbons
bonded to the
carbonyl carbon.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Carboxylic Acids
• Acids have a
hydroxyl group
bonded to the
carbonyl group.
• They are tart tasting.
• Carboxylic acids are
weak acids.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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Esters

• Esters are the

products of
reactions
between
carboxylic acids
and alcohols.
• They are found in
many fruits and
perfumes.
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Biological
Chemistry
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 Amides
Amides are formed
by the reaction of
carboxylic acids with
amines.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Amines
• Amines are organic bases.
• They generally have strong, unpleasant
odors.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Chirality
• Carbons with four different groups attached to
them are handed, or chiral or asymetric.
• These are optical isomers or stereoisomers.
• If one stereoisomer is ―right-handed,‖ its
enantiomer is ―left-handed.‖

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
 Amino Acids and Proteins

• Proteins are polymers

of -amino acids.
• A condensation
reaction between the
amine end of one
amino acid and the
acid end of another
produces a peptide
bond. Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Amino Acids and Proteins

• Hydrogen bonding in
peptide chains causes
coils and helices in the
chain.
• Kinking and folding of
the coiled chain gives
proteins a
characteristic shape.
Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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Amino Acids and Proteins

• Most enzymes are

proteins.
• The shape of the
active site
complements the
shape of the substrate
on which the enzyme
acts; hence, the ―lock-
and-key‖ model. Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
 Carbohydrates

Simple sugars are

polyhydroxy
aldehydes or ketones.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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Carbohydrates

• In solution, they form

cyclic structures.
• These can form chains
of sugars that form
structural molecules
such as starch and
cellulose.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.
 Nucleic Acids
Two of the building blocks of
RNA and DNA are sugars
(ribose or deoxyribose) and
cyclic bases (adenine,
guanine, cytosine, and
thymine or uracil).

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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Nucleic Acids
These combine with
a phosphate to form
a nucleotide.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
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 Nucleic Acids

Nucleotides combine
to form the familiar
double-helix form of
the nucleic acids.

Organic and
Biological
Chemistry
© 2009, Prentice-Hall, Inc.