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Chemistry Forums for Students => Organic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: monkeybananaraffle on February 26, 2022, 11:14:10 AM

Title: Identifying a large molecule with sulfur-sulfur bond and phenol group
Post by: monkeybananaraffle on February 26, 2022, 11:14:10 AM
Hello,

I saw a tattoo of a large organic molecule and I was curious whether it's an artist's creation or a molecule found in nature. The image is here: https://imgur.com/8wDXM4D (https://imgur.com/8wDXM4D), I can see:

I tried some web searches for sulfur-sulfur etc but I could not find it. I would appreciate if anyone could give answer - but it just for my curiousity :)
Title: Re: Identifying a large molecule with sulfur-sulfur bond and phenol group
Post by: MOTOBALL on February 26, 2022, 01:01:32 PM
My impression is that this is very possibly a real molecule, of the class "macrolide antibiotic."

Bar somebody posting the name, you will need to calculate the empirical formula e.g. H2O for water, CH4 for methane, C2H6O for ethanol etc.

This molecule will be of the form CwHxO12N12S2, where I have done the easy counts for O, N and S.

Counting the C is relatively easy, just laborious; counting the H is sometimes tricky, and also laborious---VERY easy to make errors with both C & H.
Suggest that you count C & H at least 5 times each and record your results; when you get agreement in successive counts you should be good to go.

Now enter CwHxO12N12S2 in Google.

Please let us know how it works out, and good luck!
Title: Re: Identifying a large molecule with sulfur-sulfur bond and phenol group
Post by: monkeybananaraffle on February 26, 2022, 02:47:49 PM
Thank you - it's Oxytocin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxytocin). I didn't think to just sum the element counts - I will know for next time!

Thank you again.
Title: Re: Identifying a large molecule with sulfur-sulfur bond and phenol group
Post by: Borek on February 26, 2022, 05:24:38 PM
Quote from: monkeybananaraffle on February 26, 2022, 02:47:49 PM
I didn't think to just sum the element counts - I will know for next time!

It is not guaranteed to work, but it is always a good starting point :)

Especially as most of the molecules used on tattoos (and more generally in pop culture) are those most popular and common ones, so google shows them between the first hits.