Organic Chemistry and Its Relationship to Biochemistry

This chapter describes how a traditional discussion of atomic structure and its relationship to organic chemistry is relevant to dentistry. Although the fundamental chemistry and biochemistry described here are common knowledge, the discussion centers on the associations with teeth and dental disease (Sects. 1 and 2). In addition, the difference between respiration and fermentation and the different types of fermentations involved in dental caries and periodontal disease are discussed (Sect. 3). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the difference between the outer cell surface of gram-positive and gramnegative bacteria that is important in causing these diseases (Sect. 4). 

An attempt has been made to give an overview of all chemical aspects of plant protection, with the exception of analytical chemistry. We are fully aware that the designation chemistry of pesticides does not cover an unequivocally defined, uniform branch of science, because the fundamental sciences on which it is built, particularly organic chemistry and biochemistry, have maintained their independence and their original scope also within the frame of this special field. The chemistry of pesticides integrates these fundamental sciences only functionally, and not with respect to their methods. Our book attempts to achieve this functional unity. In the discussion of individual compounds and types of compound our aim has been to cover preparative and organic chemical and biochemical aspects, metabolism, activity-structure relationships, fields of application, and environmental and toxicological problems. 

Relationships of molecular topology to chemical reactivity of polynuclear benzenoid hydrocarbons are of interest for both theoreticians and experimentalists. Reactivity indices, derived from topological approaches to the chemistry of benzenoid hydrocarbons, have proved useful in such varied fields as mechanistic organic chemistry, biochemistry, carbon science, and environmental science. It is not the aim of this review, however, to give a comprehensive account of reactivity indices of benzenoid hydrocarbons. Instead, the main emphasis is placed on the underlying basic principles of the relationship between topology and reactivity of benzenoid hydrocarbons. 

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