organic chemistry/importance of organic chemistry

Organic chemistry

Hydrocarbons are organic compound in which carbon atom are joined to H-atoms by covalent bonds. All others compound could be regarded as derivatives of hydrocarbons. Thus the definition of organic chemistry could be;

̒̒A study of hydrocarbons and their derivatives̓̓.

Importance of organic chemistry

A large number of organic materials, both natural and synthetics are essential to overall being and living standard. The food we take, the cloth we wear, the papers of our book, the medicine we use when we are sick, are all the organic in nature. The modern synthetic organic products are gasoline, plastics, coating, vitamins, medicinal drugs, dyes, artificial flavorings, insecticide, preservatives and artificial sweeteners. The human body itself is made of a verity of organics and the every life process is supported by numerous enzymes catalyzed reactions that occur in our body.

Why organic compound discovered in large numbers?

The number of organic compound known today is about four million. Thousands of now ones are being synthesized and describe daily. The existence of such a large numbers of organic compounds is due to the carbon. Carbon made it possible by the unique bonding characteristic of the element.

The three exceptional properties of carbon are;

1.    Strong carbon-carbon bond.

2.    Covalent bond with other elements.

3.     Multiple bonds.

It is evident from the above dissection that countless molecular structure containing carbon atom is possible. This account for the vast number and variety of the organic molecule that exist.