English 4, Post 3

Thalidomide: a teaching of why stereochemistry is so important

I want to write about something important, the infamous case of the intoxication of newborn babies with the sedative Thalidomide.

First of all we need to explain what is stereochemistry and thalidomide, stereochemistry is the study of chemical properties based on the  position an orientation of the atoms that forms them, on the other hand, thalidomide is a sedative sell in mass by drugstores.

At the beginning of the 60´s there were alarming cases of newborn babies who were missing their arms and legs, an investigation later uncovered that the cause of this was the use of Thalidomide by the mother or the father  , however,  there were two versions of thalidomide that had two different stereochemical configurations and were produced at the same time, in other words, a simple shift in the position of one molecule created a substance with properties completely different.

This case showed to the world the importance of stereochemistry in the elaboration of medicines and in other compounds to avoid more cases like these one, from that point onward different industries make sure to produce the correct molecule and to separate this ones from other ones produced at the same time that are similar but could produce harmful health effects