Molecular Chirality: Language, History, and Significance

In this chapter some background material concerning molecular chirality and enantiomerism is presented. First some basic chemical-molecular aspects of chirality are reviewed, after which certain relevant terminology whose use in the literature has been problematic is discussed. Then an overview is provided of some of the early discoveries that laid the foundations of the science of molecular chirality in chemistry and biology, including the discovery of the phenomenon of molecular chirality by L. Pasteur, the proposals for the asymmetric carbon atom by J.H. van 't Hoff and J.A. Lebel, Pasteur's discovery of biological enantioselectivity, the discovery of enantioselectivity at biological receptors by A. Piutti, the studies of enzymatic stereoselectivity by E. Fischer, and the work on enantioselectivity in pharmacology by A. Cushny. Finally, the role of molecular chirality in pharmacotherapy and new-drug development, arguably one of the main driving forces for the current intense interest in the phenomenon of molecular chirality, is discussed.