July's MOTM is the notorious drug, thalidomide. The pages have been written by one of the undergraduates here at Bristol, and include a nice introductory discussion on various types of isomerism, including the optical isomerism that was responsible for thalidomide's side-effects.
Molecules are sometimes packed in crystals. Two crystalline forms of thalidomide are known and structurally characterized (alpha and beta forms). Which form is in the drug bottles ? Not a word about crystalline phases in the MOTM. Does these 2 crystalline varieties produce different isomers when the drug pass in solution inside human being bodies ? Best, Armel Le Bail - Universite du Maine, Laboratoire des Fluorures, CNRS ESA 6010, Av. O. Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans Cedex 9, France http://www.cristal.org/ chemweb: A list for Chemical Applications of the Internet. To post to list: mailto:chemweb@ic.ac.uk Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/chemweb/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message; (un)subscribe chemweb List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)