Publisher's Synopsis
The developments in organic synthesis in recent years have seen as dramatic change as any that have occurred in laboratory sciences. One need only mention a few terms to understand that chemical systems that did not exist twenty years ago have become as much a part of the repertoire of the synthetic organic chemist as borosilicate glassware. The wellbeing of modern society is unimaginable without the myriad products of industrial organic synthesis. Our quality of life is strongly dependent on, interalia, the products of the pharmaceutical industry, such as antibiotics for combating disease and analgesics or anti-inflammatory drugs for relieving pain. By the turn of the 20th century the germ theory of disease had been developed by Pasteur and Koch, and for chemists seeking new uses for coal tar derivatives which were unsuitable as dyes, the burgeoning field of pharmaceuticals was an obvious one for exploitation. The introduction of the sulfa drugs was followed by the development of the penicillin antibiotics The penicillins, the related cephalosporins, and the steroid hormones represented considerably more complicated synthetic targets than the earlier mentioned sulfa drugs. The purpose of this volume is to portray a survey, and systematic introduction to, the modern techniques of organic synthesis for the advanced graduate students, practitioners and researcher. An attempt has been made to acquaint the student with a variety of laboratory techniques with real cases as well as to introduce him to chemical reagents that require deftness and care in handling. Experiments have been drawn from the standard literature of organic synthesis including suitable modifications of several of the reliable and useful preparations that have appeared in Organic Synthesis.
