Word of the day: pharmacognosy

The word of the day is pharmacognosy:

the study of natural product molecules (typically secondary metabolites) that are useful for their medicinal, ecological, gustatory, or other functional properties (http://www.pharmacognosy.us/what-is-pharmacognosy/)

"In CAS databases, pharmaceutical patents are categorized in right subsections.  Majority of Chinese pharmaceutical patents fall in the categories of biologics, pharmacognosy, pharmaceutics, formulation and compounding, and prosthetics and medical goods."

 - Matthew J. McBride and Roger J. Schenck, "Pharmaceuticals lead Chinese patent applications in 2014", C&EN Supplement, August 2015

Word of the day: ceria

The word of the day is ceria:

a white-to-yellow, heavy powder,cerium dioxide, CeO ₂ , usually derived from cerium nitrate by decomposition with heat: used chiefly in ceramics, glass polishing, and decolorizing (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ceria)

"CMP [chemical mechanical planarization] slurries are waterborne formulations of abrasives and chemicals.  The abrasives are normally particles of ceria, alumina, or colloidal or fumed silica."

 - Alexander Trullo et al., "Chip polishing shines bright", 6 July 2015 Chemical & Engineering News

Word of the day: rutile

The word of the day is rutile:

a common mineral, titanium dioxide, TiO ₂ , usually reddish-brown in color with a brilliant metallic or adamantine luster, occurring in crystals (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rutile)

"Shortly after the Nature paper, Fujishima realized that practical H2 production would be difficult with his catalytic system.  Single rutile crystals of TiO2 were hard to get, and even when they were available, yields were low."

 - A. Maureen Rouhi, "Akira Fujishima: Photocatalysis pioneer shares his adventures with titanium dioxide", 8 June 2015 Chemical & Engineering News (http://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i23/CEN-Talks-Photocatalysis-Pioneer-Akira.html)

Word of the day: vesicant

The word of the day is vesicant:

producing a blister or blisters, as a medicinal substance (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vesicant)

"The article describing the use of chemical weapons in warfare focuses almost exclusively on vesicants used by German and British forces during World War I.  But it omits mention of the equally or even more devastating chemical incendiary bombs and flamethrowers used in extensive U.S. and British air attacks on German and Japanese cities and forces during World War II, by U.S. forces in Korea, and by French and U.S. forces in Vietnam."

 - Manfred E. Wolff, 11 May 2015 Chemical & Engineering News (http://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i19/Devastation-Chemical-Weapons.html)

Molecule of the day: terephthalic acid

The molecule of the day is terephthalic acid:

It's a precursor in making polyethylene terephthalate (PET).  It's in the news because of a new biobased (i.e., sustainable) route to producing p-xylene, which can then be converted to terephthalic acid: the currently used methods produce terephthalic acid from petrochemicals.