Chemistry at the heart of drug action

Chemistry for pharmacy students: General, organic and natural product chemistry 

Satyajit D Sarker and Lutfun Nahar. 

Chichester, UK: Wiley-Interscience 2007 | 396pp | ?75.00 (HB) ISBN 9780470017814 

Reviewed by Elena Bichenkova

The target audience for this book is pharmacy students and academic teams who are responsible for pharmacy training courses. The purpose of this textbook is to give students a solid chemistry basis at a correct level suitable for the pharmacy undergraduate students. 

The book covers the basic concepts in organic chemistry and natural product chemistry and provides students with an understanding of the physicochemical properties of drugs from the perception of atomic structure and bonding. 

Coverage of the individual aspects is sufficient in depth, and provides readers of different levels and scientific background with the essentials in organic and pharmaceutical chemistry. The book is written in student-friendly style and balances adequately the theoretical aspects with the practical applications of these concepts to characterisation, design and production of drug molecules.  

The book begins by covering physicochemical aspects of organic molecules with a particular emphasis on acid-base properties, as well as polarity and solubility. The second chapter emphasises the influence of structure and bonding on pharmaceutical properties of drugs and their interactions with drug receptors. 

In Chapter 3 the authors comprehensively cover the stereochemistry of organic molecules and discuss its significances in drug activity and toxicity. The next chapter provides an overview of various functional groups, introduces some important classes of organic and bioorganic compounds and discusses their pharmaceutical significance. 

After covering the mechanisms of major reactions in organic and pharmaceutical chemistry, the book ends with a comprehensive overview of various classes of natural product with essential pharmaceutical and medicinal properties, and considers their role in the drug discovery process.