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Oraanic Chemirtrv. Volume 2: Stereochemlrtry and the Chemistry of Natural Prodictr
I . L. Pinar, Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, Northern Polytechnic, Holloway, London. 2nd ed. Longmans. Green & Co., Inc., New York, 1059. xi 834 pp. Figs. 15 X 22 em. $9.50.
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This revised edition of Organic Chemistry, Volume 2, adheres t,o the same degree of thoroughness and selectivity that was s h o r n in the firat edition. I t is now brought up to date in certain respects and is expanded in others. There arc 10 chapters, an author index, a subject index and 5 list of ahbreviatiom that precede~ the tshle of content,s a t the bpginninp. The firat, chapter ia devoted to physical properties and chemical constitution. Thc next five chapters cover stercarhnnist,ry, ten chapters cover natural products, and there is one chapter on polyryelic aromat,ic compounds, one on hct~roeyclie compounds containing two or more hetero aboms, and one on chemot,hempy_ Ccrtnin subject materials from the prcviaus edition hsvc boen oxpnndod. Among thcso topics are dipole mament,~, molecular rotation, optical isomerism, steric effects, aacorbic acid, the structure and synthesis of cholesterol, vitamin A,, polypeptides, the mechanism of ensgme action, Havones, streptomycin and patulin. The t,wo main addition^ are canformational analysis and hiosynbhesis. Sufficirnt qqdici~t,ionshnvo hceu providcd t,o give spreific meaning to cnch of thew areas. Beside thcse additions, there arc also included brief accounts of nuclear magnetic resonance, rorrelstion of configurations, isoHavoncs, and vitamin B,?. Orcnsional cross-referemins. is useful in relating topics of various rorta which have some mutual points of rommon interest that need to bn ~tressed. There are scveral topicp, honever. on which the treatment is almost too hrief. This is true in the treatment of r:nsymes and enzyme action, where an impression might he a h t a i ~ ~ e that tl this fiplrl has not heen developrrl t,o t,hr w t m t that it really has. In other instances, ccrtitin iopics have remained unmentioned which certainly aro vitally import,ant to a book that bears thc titlc of t,his one. This is cvident in the case of optical isomers that do not contain an aaymmetrio carbon atom and whose configurations cannot bc assigned Dor L- prefixes. Nevertheless their absolute configurations arc lmown by relating them to the known tartaric acids, and (Continued on page A564)
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lournol of Chernicol Educotion
BOOK REVIEWS therefore D-glyceraldehyde, by indirect means. To be specific, the absolute configurations of biphenyls can be established by beautiful intuitive reasoning through "abnormd" Grignard reactions or the Me~rwein-l'onndorf-%ley reduct,ion by means of quasi-six-membered rings. The terms Rectus and Sinister should he mentioned briefly; this would tie in with other absolute configurations of biphenyls through specific quasiracemates in thermal analyses. Space is ccrtxinly limited, but such suhject matter would seem to be important for a future revision. The approach is generally the same as in the previous edition, which has already hren reviewed enthusisstieally in numerouii journals. The task of an author attempting to reduce the topics t,a hc covered in a redable single volume in, of conmr, not easy. Formulas, equation*, diagramri, tahlcs, and other vivual aids art. very dearly done. This volume oan hc most highly recommended for any organic chemist wishing to have an adequate single volume ref~rencoat hand treating with st~reorhemistr,vand an introduction to t,hc chemistry of natural products The- aut,hor's ~ t y l eis w r y clear, with attention given to details and careful tlvoidnnoe of verhdistic nonsense.
JOHNLEO ARERNETUY Tlnir,nsil!,of Cd
