Organic chemistry applications

Structures are at the heart of organic chemistry. The brains are in using structures and structural theory to achieve desired chemical transformations. Before the 1920s, the only way to determine the way that the constituent atoms in an organic molecule are bonded together was by degradation and synthesis. For complex molecules, the process of determining structures was often arduous, particularly when there were few functional groups as with many steroids. Nonetheless, extraordinary progress was made, even if slowly, by a combination of experimental and deductive skills.