In the tests to enter the Faculty of Medicine it is foreseeable that questions of organic chemistry will appear. What is it and why is it important to know it?
From 4 to 22 July aspiring doctors will be able to register for the test to access the Faculty of Medicine as freshmen for the academic year 2022/23. Candidates must register for the admission test exclusively through the procedure available on the official website of Univeritaly, while the payment of the participation fee for the test takes place according to the procedures established by the University in which the test is taken.
Il Medicine test will take place throughout Italy on 6 September to access Medicine and Surgery, Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics, on 8 December for Veterinary, on 13 September for IMAT (Medicine and Surgery, Dentistry and Dental Prosthetics in English), on 15 September it is reserved for health professions.
Among the possible subjects on which to prepare, questions of organic chemistry. In particular for Medicine and Dentistry. But what is this matter that keeps many students from sleep?
What is organic chemistry?
Organic chemistry is a branch of chemistry. We owe this term to the Swedish chemist Jons Jacob Berzelius who adopted it for the first time in 1807. By “organic” we mean compounds extracted from living organisms. Decades later, in 1861, August Kekulè used this compound term to identify the study of carbon compounds.
Organic molecules: the building blocks of living matter
This subject deals with the chemical and physical characteristics of organic molecules, which are all molecules (chemical structures formed by several atoms) containing carbon atoms (reported with the abbreviation C). Therefore, organic compounds are conventionally defined as carbon compounds with the exception of oxides, monoxide and dioxide, and of the salts of the latter. Put simply, organic compounds are the main components of living matter, and we are surrounded by them, think for example of proteins, carbohydrates, paper, plastic.
These organic compounds are represented by the structural formulawhich highlights the bonds that keep the atoms together: in the laboratory and on the study tables, each bond that unites two atoms is indicated with a dash.
Yet organic chemistry is much less abstract than we think; studies the compounds of the matter with which we deal daily, and not only.
Why is it important to study organic chemistry?
Currently we know more than 2 millions from organic compounds. Artificial ones are also produced, so their number is constantly increasing. Let’s take for example the sucrose (lo sugar table). It is one of the most produced and used pure organic compounds in the world. Sucrose is made up of sugar cane and beetroot, so it is the product of the union of a glucose molecule with a fructose molecule.
Why is sugar among the most used organic compounds in the food industry? Because, as many studies have shown, sugar, in addition to being a major cause of weight gain, creates dependence. It acts on the same areas of the brain that drugs, nicotine and addictive substances act on. You understand well that, in a civilization strongly driven by the consumerism, the food industry makes extensive use of it to incentivize consumers more and more to purchase products. More addiction means more sales.
This is why the study of organic chemistry is essential for future doctors, but not just for them. We think of dentists, pharmacologists, laboratory chemists, veterinarians. Studying organic chemistry is necessary to face future research in the field biochemist e biologicalone of the sectors closely related to health and nutrition.
Organic chemistry, therefore, is important because it represents the study of life and all the chemical reactions related to life. It is one of the many bricks that make up the complicated path towards the search for Welfare.
