During the past three decades the organic chemist has become in creasingly used to take advantage of more and more complex instrumenta tion and physical measurements in lieu of laborious, time-consuming and often ambiguous chemical transformations. Mass spectrometry is perhaps the most recent, most complex and most expensive addition to this field. In view of the astonishingly quick acceptance of nuclear magnetic reso nance by the organic chemist it is, in retrospect, surprising that he has neglected mass spectrometry for such a long time. This can be explained, in part, by the complexity of the instrumentation and some technical shortcomings of the earlier commercially available instruments but, to an even greater extent, it reflects also the prejudices against a technique that was originally mainly used for quantitative gas analysis. The usefulness of mass spectrometry as a qualitative technique in organic chemistry rather than a tool for quantitative analysis was more and more recognized towards the end of the last decade. A rather spectacular development followed during the intervening few years to the point that now any reasonably well equipped modern organic laboratory is supplied with, or at least has access to, one or more mass spectrometers suitable for work on organic compounds. Within the realm of organic chemistry the technique has become much more important, if not indispensable, for the natural products chemist while its application to synthetic problems is much less pro nounced.

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Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Fortschritte Der Chemie Organischer Naturstoffe / Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products / Progrès Dans La Chimie Des Substances Organiques Naturelles
Authors: K. Biemann, H. Erdtman, H. Fraenkel-Conrat, O. Hoffmann-Ostenhof, H. Kindl, T. Norin, R. Tschesche, A. B. Turner, … F. L. Warren
Series Title: Fortschritte der Chemie organischer Naturstoffe Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-8143-0
Publisher: Springer Vienna
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag / Wien · New York 1966
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-7091-8145-4Published: 12 February 2012
eBook ISBN: 978-3-7091-8143-0Published: 06 December 2012
Series ISSN: 0071-7886
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 478
Topics: Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, general, Pharmacology/Toxicology, Plant Sciences, Pharmacy

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

Front Matter

Mass Spectrometry of Selected Natural Products

Pflanzliche Steroide mit 21 Kohlenstoffatomen

Cyclite: Biosynthese, Stoffwechsel und Vorkommen

The Chemistry of the Order Cupressales

Quinone Methides in Nature

The Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids. II

Some Aspects of Virus Chemistry

Back Matter

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