The Organic Compounds

Organic chemistry was once thought to be confined to the study of substances produced as part of the natural processes of living organisms, but as Friedrich Wohler discovered in the early 1800s, organic compounds can be synthesized from minerals and other non-organic materials in the laboratory. Indeed, modern chemistry and materials sciences have concentrated on the remarkable properties of carbon atoms for the production of synthetic chemicals, pesticides and a host of other things. Organic compounds contain carbon, almost always bonded to another carbon and/or hydrogen.