Lactone
A lactone is a type of organic compound. A chemical is a lactone if it has a ring of atoms (it is cyclic) including an ester group (an oxygen atom next to a carbonyl). A structural systematic name of this group (without any other groups attached) is 1-oxacycloalkan-2-one.[1]
The name "lactone" comes from the chemical now called lactide. Lactide was made from distillation of lactic acid, like acetone was made from acetic acid, so it was called "lactone".[2] The name was later used to mean anything with the cyclic ester structure.
Sources
[change | change source]- ↑ IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. (the "Gold Book") (2025). Online version: (2006–) "lactones". doi:10.1351/goldbook.L03439
- ↑ Pelouze, J. (9 December 1844). "Mémoire sur l'acide lactique" [Memoir on lactic acid]. Comptes rendus (in French). 19: 1219–1227.
From p. 1223: "Indépendamment de la lactide dont je viens de rappeler l'existence dans les produits de la distllation de l'acide lactique, celui-ci donne encore, par sa décomposition, une autre substance, que je propose d'appeler lactone, parce qu'elle me paraît être à l'acide lactique ce que l'acétone est à l'acide acétique." (Independently of the lactide of which I have just recalled the existence in the products of the distillation of lactic acid, this [i.e., lactic acid] gives further, by its decomposition, another substance, which I propose to call lactone, because it seems to me to be to lactic acid what acetone is to acetic acid.)
- Reprinted: Pelouze, J. (1845). "Mémoire sur l'acide lactique" [Memoir on lactic acid]. Annales de Chimie et de Physique. 3rd series (in French). 13: 257–268. ; see p. 262.
- English translation: Pelouze, J. (January 15, 1845). "Researches on lactic acid". The Chemical Gazette. 3 (54): 29–35. ; see p. 31.
- Menten, Pierre de (2013). Dictionnaire de chimie: Une approche étymologique et historique [Dictionary of Chemistry: an etymological and historical approach] (in French). Brussels, Belgium: de boeck. p. 183. ISBN 9782804181758.
