Answer to Question #181985 in Organic Chemistry for Amani Ismail

Question

Dextroamphetamine is an example of a chiral drug that has been shown to be more effective than its enantiomer Levoamphetamine. Given the active enantiomer below, assign priorities to the CH₃, CH₂, NH₂ and H, and do an RS assignment. How would you distinguish the enantiomers that are present in a sample? How would you determine the % purity? Dextroamphetamine undergoes racemisation, explain the clinical significance of racemisation

Answer 1

The main difference between enantiomers and diastereomers is that the former is a mirror image but the later is not a mirror image. Enantiomers are the molecules that are mirror images but non-superimposable. ... If two stereoisomers are mirror images of each other then it is called enantiomers. Stereochemistry is of critical importance to drug action because the shape of a drug molecule is an important factor in determining how it interacts with the various biological molecules (enzymes, receptors, etc.) that it encounters in the body.