Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Medicinal Chemistry

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is good in the sense that it is an easy read for anyone interested in the subject. The drawings and cartoons provide a bit of humor to the text and the writing is cloear and focused. The only drawback to the book is that the layperson does not get the full effect of the book without a very good grasp of biochemistry (hence the term layperson!). To get the real scope of the book, one would need to read a good Biochem text ( I personally suggest Lehninger, et. al. Principles of Biochemistry, 3rd ed.). A good pharmacological text would greatly enhance the reader's understanding of the subject as well (i.e. Goodman and Gilman's). Otherwise, the book does give a very brief, very good overview of many aspects of Medicinal Chemistry.

Bought the third edition for a class and I didnt even need this one but since I read the last edition I knew this would be good as well. So far I have not been disappointed and there is a good deal of information that was not in the last edition. This book is highly recommended.

I have never written a review before but this book has become a fixture in my life. It has become dog eared, marked up, highlighted, underlined - the works. To put this in perspective, I have a background and degree in computer science and am in a PhD program doing computational drug design. I had enough undergrad premed to be dangerous and to follow discussions, but my true strength was on the computational side. I bought this book to help me pick up my chemistry and biochemistry and, with all due humility, it worked like a charm. The explanations are clear and beautiful and, if you like this stuff, it's a page turner. Seriously. Yes, it is an introductory text. But man is it a good one. From here I have been able to move on to other graduate texts, contribute equally in my lab on the biochem front, and even had the opportunity to ask some questions of Christopher Lipinski (of Rule of Five fame) at a conference without embarrassing myself. If you are relatively new to drug design or medicinal chemistry or pharmacology and want to come up to speed quickly, and have at least, say, AP high school chemistry or maybe undergrad chemistry, particularly with at least one organic chem class, BUY THIS BOOK. I cannot say it enough. If you are in a position similar to mine, this book is outstanding. In the context of my degree program, maybe even life changing. The single best academic purchase I've made. Sorry to come off like a fan boy, but this book earned it. It's that good.

This text has a very good chapters on QSAR (quantitative-structure activity relationship). I recommend this for the beginning scholars and students interested in QSAR for drug design.

I have not been able to use this book yet since I bought it, however i received it quickly. The wrapping was cut up when I received it, so I was a little upset about that, but otherwise the book was in great condition upon arrival.

The author states that this book is aimed at undergraduates who have a basic grounding in chemistry and are interested in a future career in the pharmaceutical industry. Chemistry background includes now elements of quantum chemistry and molecular orbital theory. The author completely fails in including these elements in the Chapter on Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships. Moreover, he seems completely unaware of the fundamental contributions of Quantum Chemistry to QSAR. This text could perfectly include elements of (INTRODUCTORY) quantum-chemical applications to QSAR (the scientific literature is full). We must wait until the next edition to get a book that can be recommended to serious students!. Juan S. Gomez-Jeria Associate Professor Faculty of Sciences University of Chile.