Comparative crystal structure determination of griseofulvin: Powder X-ray diffraction versus single-crystal X-ray diffraction

In an attempt to compare crystal structure determination from powder data and single-crystal data, crystal structure of griseofulvin (C17H17ClO6) was tested by both powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Lattice parameters of griseofulvin are a=90.0A degrees, a=b=8.9757 , c=19.9345 , V=1605.99 (3) from powder data coinciding with alpha=90.0A degrees, a=b=8.9714 , c=19.8848 , V=1600.46 (3) from single-crystal data. Main processes of structure elucidating of griseofulvin by the two approaches were analyzed. Powder X-ray diffraction was demonstrated to be a powerful auxiliary implement to single-crystal X-ray diffraction in structure characterization, and its application can be popularized in the field of structure research of small organic molecules.