Zur Begriffsbildung für die funktionellen Gruppen organischer Stoffe aus biologischen Prozessen

Abstract:

Concerning a conception of functional groups based on biological processes

The functional groups of classical organic chemistry prove highly suited for classification purposes when their various process potentials are taken from the living world. Such a classification harbours information which accords better with the facts; we need only extend the usual way of understanding them. We have attempted to provide a new approach to functional groups through application of key concepts in chemistry, and in so doing, have demonstrated a surprisingly clear ordering. We have pursued two tendeneies:

a ) Increasing alkalinity amd acidity.- Here we can assume substances that are primarily sah-like in character. One pathway to acids carries us through aldehydes and ketones to carboxylic acids, while another more enhanced acidic pathway is identified in the mercaptans and sulphonic acids. The path to bases shows aromatics that are alkaline in nature, then the alcohols, the amines, the heterocyclics (aromatic rings with attached, reduced nitrogen) and finally the alkaloids.

b) Homeopolar and heteropolar bands: The homeopolar bonds show a tendency towards fixation, to persistencc in the formed substance. They become pure substance, largely removed from the ongoing process. Heteropolar bonds on the other hand are participants in the process, however they tend to»coagulate«too little in the material. Between these two poles lie living substances which mostly possess a heteropolar component, or get one mediated by phosphoric acid or a thioether, without becoming a mineral salt as an end product of the reaction. The molecular character of the bonds (homeopolar) - owing to the size of the molecule - is sah-like, while ionic bonds through their hydro-carbon chains are transformed into what are characteristically atomic-bonds.

It is in the world of organic materials that we observe all tendeneies that are at the same time observable in the inorganic realm of the periodic table, spread over a multitude of substances, and yet realised through just six non-metallic elements, five of which are found on the earth.

It is possible, then, to develop an overview which can be expanded in Class 12 of Waldorf-Steiner schools to cover the entire world of substances. In this way, we provide access to chemistry through the world of living things and consider materials as the outcome of living processes. We can claim, in the end, that materials are merely the captured images of ongoing processes.