What's the function of impurities ( http://www.bocsci.com/Impurities-and-metabolites.html )? Can't understand its application in drug discovery. Please help!

Question

photon336 · Answer

@alexbrown 

for things like this it's best to put the information into your own words in a simple matter then worry about the HOW later on. 

the first sentence is pretty telling. 

"Impurities may have a significant influence on the effects of drug products or may cause unwanted side-effects." 

In my own words: 

Impurities influence the effect of a drug and can cause unwanted side effects. 
You want to make a drug that does the job its designed to do and nothing more. 


The problem here is dealing with the impurities:

In my own words the company seems to offer the following: 

1. Improved detection of impurities. 
2. Methods to reduce their levels.

photon336 · Answer

they're vague probably because "unwanted side effects" may depend on the type of impurity that's present.

photon336 · Answer

@LeibyStrauss thoughts?

anonymous · Answer

@AlexBrown @Photon336 If a chemical compound is synthesized and we know there are impurities, but we can't identify the molecular structure of the impurity.  For example, aspirin is  acetylsalicylic acid.  Suppose according to the  stoichiometric You have your answer, technically you need to put the state of the elements and compounds.  You also need to write your answer in scientific notation. we expect to create 2.00 mol of acetylsalicylic acid.  However, when titrated with a base it was determined that there was only 1.98 mol of acid.  So there is 0.02 mol of unknown impurity.  If the impurity can be obtained, methods for identifying the impurity can be tested to identify the impurity in the acetylsalicylic acid.  This is all my personal opinion, maybe you can find sources to validate this or disprove it.  I'd be interested in what your research is.

anonymous · Answer

Thanks for all your detailed and fast explanation for the problem. Very informative. And now I think I already got a rough idea about that from your answers.

photon336 · Answer

if you know what the melting point of your compound is supposed to be, you can take a small amount of it at the end of your reaction, and place it into a detector I forgot the name of the machine but it will heat the sample until it melts and then it will display the melting point temperature. you compare these two temperatures, and if it's lower than the value you expected you'll know that there are impurities in your sample. 

acidic and or basic extractions are another way to remove impurities from your sample.