ENGLISH COURSE

NUTRITION AND DIETETICS

1ST YEAR

Grammar Lessons

The Present

Present simple: the base form (+ s, es, -ies 3rd person).

Use:
- general truths: Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
- habits: The British drinks a lot of tea.
- states: I dont like gangster films.
- headlines: Ship sinks in midnight collision.
- instructions: First you peel the potatoes.
- itineraries (future actions): On day three we visit Stratford-upon-Avon.
- summaries of events: 1945: the war comes to an end.
- historic present (in narratives): The second man sees the first one...

Present continuous: be + vb. ing.

Use:
- actions in progress at the moment: The dog is sleeping in our bed!
- actions in progress, but not happening at the moment: Im learning to drive.
- temporary actions: Are you enjoying your stay here?
- complains: You are always complaining about my cooking!
- describing change (development): Things are getting worse!
- future arrangements: Im having a party at the end of the week.

States verbs and event (dynamic) verbs

States verbs do not usually have a continuous form:
believe, belong, consist, doubt, have, know, like, love, matter, mean, prefer, understand,
seem, suppose, suspect, want, wish.

Eg. This book belongs to me.

Some verbs have a stative meaning and a different active meaning:

be, feel, depend, have, see, taste, think, weigh.

Eg.
Jack is noisy. / John is being noisy.
I think I like you. / He is thinking about getting a new job.
This fish tastes awful! / I am just tasting the soup.

The Future
 Future Simple : will + infinitive (shall -expresses obligation- is declining in use formal)
Use:
- predictions: Interest rates will rise next year.
- assumptions: Thatll be Jim at the door.
- immediate decision: Ill take a taxi.

Future Continuous: will + be + present participle (v ing)

Use:
- event happening at a future point: This time next week Ill be lying on the beach.
- polite form: Will you be going to the shops later?
- fixed arrangements, plans: The band will be performing in Paris this summer.

Future Perfect: Simple will + have + past participle

Continuous will + have + been +present participle (v ing)

Use:
- predictions about actions we expect to be completed by a particular time in the future:
Hell have had the operation by May.
- assumption: You wont have heard the news, of course.
- FPC- an action which is still going on at a point in the future (focus on the duration):
Well have been living in this house for 20 years in December.

Other ways of expressing future

Be going to:
- intention (a more distant point in the future):
He is going to study environmental law next year.
- prediction based on evidence (actions that have already been decided):
Look at those clouds. Its going to rain.
Present Continuous:
- arrangements: Were seeing a musical at the theatre next week.

Is / are to formal arrangements: The prince is to visit France.

Be about to, be on the point of, be due to the next moment: The play is about to start now.
scheduled: Anns flight is due at 6:20.

Present Simple: fixed events: Tom retires in three years.

in future time clauses: When we get there, well have dinner.

Present Perfect: completion of a future event: When we have finished, well go out.
Verbs followed by will-believe, expect, and doubt: I expect the train will be late.

Past Time
Past Simple (the 2 nd form/ Vb ed) Affirmative: He wrote a letter.
Negative: He didnt write a letter.
Interrogative: Did he write a letter?
Use:
- completed actions: I got up, switched off the radio and sat down again.
- habits: Every day I went to the park.
- states: In those days, I didnt like reading.

Past Continuous (was/were + Vb ing)

Use:
- actions in progress in the past: I was drinking my coffee. / While I was opening the
letter, the phone rang.
- changing states: The car was getting worse all the time.
- criticism: When Jane was at school, she was always losing things.

Past Perfect Simple (had + past participle)

Use:
- events in the past which happen before another event in the past, where there is no time
expression to make this clear:
By the time I got to the station, the train had left.

compare:
The train left five minutes before I got to the station.

Past Perfect Continuous (had + been + Vb ing)

Use:
- actions in progress which happen before a certain time in the past: The place was
deserted, but it was obvious that someone had been living there.

Used to and would: describing habits, repeated actions/states in the past.

Used to + active or stative verbs: I used to like cowboys films.
I used to go swimming a lot.
Neg. : I didnt use (or used not) to

Would + active verbs: Every week hed buy his mother a bunch of flowers.

Polite forms: I was wondering if you wanted to come to the cinema.

Describing events intended to take place: I was going to phone you, but I forgot.

Past tenses are also used to express unreal time.

Past perfect is also common in indirect speech.

Present Perfect
Present Perfect Simple: have/has + past participle (3 rd form/Vb ed)
Use:
- recent events: We have just missed the turning.
- indefinite time events: Jim has had three car accidents. (up to the present)
Ive twisted my ankle, thats why Im limping. (result in the
present)

Contrasts with past simple

Past simple refers to definite times, stated or understood.
Compare: Ive bought a new car. (indefinite)
I bought a new car last week. (definite)
I bought the car after all. (implied definite: the car we talk about)
Choice between past simple and present perfect for recent events may depend on the mental
attitude of the speaker.
Ive left my wallet in the car. Im going back to get it. (the speaker feels that the event is
connected to the present).
I left my wallet in the car. Im going back to get it. (the speaker feels separated in time
from the event).

Present Perfect Continuous: have/has + been + present participle (Vb ing)

Use:
- a state which lasts up to the present: Ive been waiting for you for three hours.
- an incomplete activity: Ive been cleaning the house, but I still havent finished.
- to emphasize duration: Ive been writing letters all morning.
- a recently finished activity: Ive been running, thats why I look hot.
- a repeated activity: Ive been taking French lessons this year.

Contrasts with present perfect simple:

- very little, when state verbs are used: How long have you lived here?
How long have you been living here?
- some verbs (sit, lie, wait, stay) prefer the continuous form:
Ive been waiting here for more than an hour!
- contrast between completion and incompletion:
Ive ironed five shirts this morning. (completed, emphasis on
achievement)
Ive been ironing my shirts this morning. (incomplete, emphasis on duration)

Time expressions with present perfect:

since 1989, for 3 years, already, just

Time expressions with past simple:

yesterday, last week, on Sunday, ... ago

Some time expressions are not associated with a specific tense:

 I havent seen Helen recently.
I saw Jim recently.

Passive voice (1)

Form: be + past participle

Agent and instrument

The person who performs an action in a passive sentence is called the agent, introduced
by by. The agent may or may not be mentioned.
E.g. My purse was found (by one of the cleaners).
An object which causes something to happen is called an instrument, introduced by with.
E.g. He was hit on the head with a hammer.

Transitive and intransitive verbs

Only verbs with an object (transitive) can be made passive.
E.g. Active Voice: They sent the letter. Passive V: The letter was sent.
Active Voice: They arrived late. (intransitive, cannot be made passive)

Verbs with both direct and indirect objects can be made passive in two ways:
E.g. AV: They sent me the letter. PV: I was sent the letter.
IO DO The letter was sent to me.

Verbs with object and complement (nume predicativ)

Some verbs which are transitive can have a noun or an adjective which describes their
object.
E.g. AV: We elected Jim class representative.
DO complement
PV: Jim was elected class representative.

Like and love

Some verbs which are transitive cannot be made passive in some uses.
E.g. AV: I like this place.
Other verbs: become, get, have, lack, let, resemble, suit, etc.

Contexts

1.The passive can change the focus of interest in a sentence:

E.g.: United were beaten by Arsenal. (we are more interested in the United)

2. Impersonal statements: Students are asked not to smoke.

3. Unknown agent: My bike has been stolen!

 4. Obvious agent: Mr Jones will be arrested.

5. Generalized agent: Bicycles are widely used in the city.

6. Unimportant agent: I was advised to obtain a visa in advance.

Conditionals

Zero conditionals: what is always true form: (if + present) + present

E.g. If I work late, I get tired.
If the water is boiling, it means the food is nearly ready.

First conditionals: real situations (in the future) form: (if + present )+ (will + inf.)
E.g. If you keep driving like that, youll have an accident.

Second conditionals: hypothetical situations (in the present or future) form: (if + past)+
(would + inf)
E.g. If I knew the answer, Id tell you.
If he were (was informal) at home, he would answer.

Third conditionals: hypothetical past (impossible situations)

form: (if + past perfect) + (would have+past part)
E.g. If I had known you were coming, I would have met you at the station.

Conditionals with modals

E.g. If you get wet, you should change your clothes immediately. (I cond)
If you come early, we can discuss the problem together. (I cond)
If I had the money, I could help you. (II cond)
If you hadnt reminded me, I might have forgotten. (III cond)

Alternatives to if:
But for But for your help, we would have been in trouble.
Unless = if not Unless you come now, Im going to leave without you.

If one situation depends on another, if can be replaced by as / as long, provided or only if:

E.g. Ill do what you say provided the police are not informed.
Supposing you won the match, what would you do?

Mixed conditionals
E.g. If Jim hadnt missed the plane, he would be here by now. (III + II)

Other tenses in conditional sentences

E.g. Id have been there, I would have seen her. (incorrect, colloquial)
If you fall, youre going to hurt yourself. (I)
 If you have finished, then well go. (present perfect, I )
If you should see Ann, could you ask her to call me? (unlikely)
If I were to ask you to marry me, what would you say? (hypothetical)
If you happen to see Helen, could you ask her to call me? (I)
If it werent for Jim, this company would be in a mess. (dependence, II)
If it hadnt been for him, United would have lost. (III)
If you will / would wait here, Ill see if Mr. Green is free. (politeness, I)
If you will stay out late, no wonder you are tired! (emphasis)

Omission of be: If necessary, take a taxi.

Formal if + adj: The room was well furnished, if a little badly decorated.

Modal auxiliaries: present and future

Modal verbs (auxiliaries) are used with another verb to express ideas such as: possibility,
permission, obligation etc.
Can (be able to when can does not have the necessary grammatical form)
- ability: I can swim. / Not being able to swim is annoying.
- criticism: You can be really annoying!
- capability: Winter can be really annoying, you know!
- deduction: That cant be Sue. Shes in Brazil.
Could
- possibility/impossibility: This could be the house. / The situation couldnt be worse.
- suggestions: We could go to the restaurant.
- unwillingness: I couldnt possibly leave Tim here on his own.
May and might
- may permission: May I go out?
- uncertainty, possibility; might is less likely than may:
It may/might not rain.
You may as well go home.
Try as I might, I could not pass my driving test.
Must and have to
- must personal obligation: I must leave.
- have to external obligation: You have to turn left here.
(There may be no difference.)
- mustnt not allowed: You mustnt leave any bags here.
- dont have to not necessary: You dont have to apply yet.
- must deduction: This must be our stop.
Should (ought to)
- expectation: This film should be really good.
- recommendation: You should talk with your parents.
- strong obligation (polite): Guests should vacate their rooms by midday.
- criticism: You shouldnt eat so much late at night.
- opinion (less direct): I should think that model would sell quite well.
 - describing chance: Its strange that you should be staying in the same hotel! (also odd,
funny)
- unlikelihood: Im taking an umbrella in case it should rain.
Shall
- certainty (from personal point of view): We shall win!
- formal rules: No player shall knowingly pick up the ball.
Will
- assumption: This call will be for me!
- refusal: I wont do it!
Would
- annoying habit: Jack would get lost!
- certainty: Nobody would agree with that idea.
- unlikelihood: Its unlikely that Jim would do something like that.
Need
- necessity/ obligation: Need you make so much noise?
- normal verb: Do you need to use the photocopier?
Related non-modal expressions
Had better recommendation (present or future): Youd better not phone her again.
Be bound to future prediction: Its bound to rain tomorrow.

Modal auxiliaries: past

Must have past certainty: I must have left the keys in the car.
Had to past obligation: Sorry Im late, I had to post some letters.
(neg: didnt have to)

Should have (ought to have)

- expectation: The parcel I sent you should have arrived by now.
- criticism: You shouldnt have eaten so much last night!
- + verb of thinking: I should have thought you knew.
- describing chance (with adjectives):
It was strange that you should have been staying in the same hotel last
year!
- polite expression: Ive done the washing up for you. - Oh, you really shouldnt have!

Could have (couldnt have)

- possibility: David could have won the race if he had tried.
- uncertainty: It could have been Sue I suppose.
- unwillingness: We couldnt have left the dog on its own! (so we didnt)

Could
- past permission: When I was sixteen, I could stay out till 11:00.
- past ability: Mary could swim when she was three. (she did)
but Mary could have swum when she was three. (but she didnt)
 Cant have certainty about a past action: You cant have lost it!

Might have (may)

- past possibility: You might have drowned!
- may/ might have uncertainty: I may have been rather critically.
(or negative forms) They might not have received our letter.
- might have annoyance: You might have told me my trousers were split.
- might have + would irony: I might have known that he would be late.

Would not unwillingness in the past:

Everyone was angry because Sam wouldnt turn off the television.
Would have
- events which did not happen: I would have accepted the job but I didnt want to move
house.
- assumptions about the past: That would have been Cathy, probably.
Neednt have
- an unnecessary action which was actually done:
You neednt have paid all at once. (you did pay)
Didnt need
- an unnecessary action which was not done:
I didnt need to go to the dentist again, luckily.
Adverbs and modals
You could easily have been killed.
I might well decide to come.
You couldnt really have managed without me.
I might just take you up on that.
She obviously must have left.

Nouns and noun phrases

Gender nouns do not have grammatical gender in English.

Some have natural gender: woman/father.
Most jobs do not imply a gender, but it can be specified: a woman doctor, businessman,
manageress, chairman (for both sexes) or chair (woman/man).

Singular and plural nouns

Regular plurals: noun + s.
Variations: family/families, tray/trays, watch/watches, boss bosses, potato/potatoes,
radio/radios, belief/beliefs, cliff/cliffs.
Irregular plurals: leaf/leaves, datum/data (Latin), phenomenon/phenomena (Greek),
child/children, woman/women, ox/oxen, sheep/sheep.
Some nouns are more common in the plural form: clothes, jeans, pyjamas, scissors, scales, darts,
cards, physics, maths, goods, thanks, news.
 Countable and uncountable nouns
Countable: a computer, two computers.
Uncountable nouns cannot be counted: oil, beauty, fruit. We dont use a/an with them and do not
make them plural: They will give you (some) advice. | advices
Determiners: For good health it is advisable to drink less alcohol and eat fewer sweet things.
Different meanings: Id love a coffee. (a cup)
Do you drink coffee? (the liquid)
A specific example of an uncountable noun: two pieces of unwanted furniture, bit of gossip, a
slice of bread, an item of news, a cup of tea.

Agreement: the verb usually agrees with the subject, but if the verb is a long way from
the subject and closer to a complement, it may agree with the complement.
The most exciting event was the rowing finals.
The most exciting event in the Sydney Olympics for most British viewers was/were the
rowing finals.
Two subjects + a plural verbs: Mum and Dad were waiting for me.
Both the doctor and the surgeon have advised me to have my gall bladder
out.
But: Fish and chips is one of the most common English dishes. (one concept).
Either my brother or my parents are going to bring the sleeping bag. (agreement with the
second of the items)
Some uncount nouns take a singular verb: Measles is dangerous for pregnant women.
But: Scissors are used to cut the jeans. (an object divided into two parts)

Collective nouns: The family has/have agreed with the decision. (a whole entity / a group
of individuals)
Always take a plural verb: cattle, police, people The police are investigating the crime.

Nominalization
Educate education; establish establishment; teach-teacher; try (verb) - try (noun).
The epidemic broke out. The outbreak of the epidemic

They released the video in 1998. (verb phrase)

The release of the video (noun phrase more concise and elegant)

Adjectives

Adjectives are words which give extra information about nouns.

In English, they do not change their form except when they are comparatives or superlatives.
Form many adjectives are formed from other words:
History historic, politics political, fashion fashionable, beauty beautiful, depend
dependent, effect effective, interesting (pres. part.), interested (past part.), home-made
(compounds).
Use adjs. can sometimes act as nouns: the old, the disabled ( particular groups).
Most adjectives can be used in front of a noun (attributive position) or after a linking verb
(predicative position). Some are usually used only in one position.
We have just seen an exciting film. (attributive)
That film was exciting. (predicative)

Adjectives usually used in attributive position: chemical, chief, criminal, eventual, former,
medical, outdoor/indoor (classifying); mere, sheer (emphasizing).

Adjectives usually used in predicative position: afraid, alike, alive, alone, ashamed, asleep,
aware (beginning with a); content, fine, glad, ill, sure (health, feelings).
Exceptions: an ill wild, a sorry state, an upset stomach.

Adjectives after nouns, pronouns, etc: something cheap (adj. after indefinite words), the oldest
woman alive (superlative adjective + noun + adjective), the last words, the last ticket available
(the last/first + noun + adj), students interested in ecology (adjective + prepositional phrase).
Adjectives with a different meaning, when used before or after a noun: concerned residents
(=worried), the students concerned (=involved), opposite points of view (=contrasting), the house
opposite (physically facing something).

Participle (-ing or -ed) adjectives:

-before or after a noun: affected, chosen, infected, stolen.
-only after a noun: applying, discussed, found, provided, taken.
Use: the losing team (the team which is losing), the lost ring (the ring which had been lost), a
frightening film / I felt frightened.
Compounds: slow-growing, rarely-performed, death-defying.

Groups of adjectives
Adjective order:
opinion + size + quality /character + age + shape + colour + participles + origin + material + type
+ purpose;
The refurbished interior features fantastic soft grey leather seats.
We dont use more than three or four adjectives before a noun. If we want to give more
information, we use additional clauses:
Its a charming small French carriage clock, made of brass from the nineteenth
century.

Paired adjectives:
Shes looking for a stable and long-lasting relationship. (similar aspects)
Using comma and and:
I found him a friendly, knowledgeable and dedicated guide.
I found him a friendly knowledgeable dedicated guide.
We dont use and before the last adjective when the adjectives are of different categories:
 We enjoyed sitting in the fantastic soft grey leather seats.

Comparison
Comparative and superlative adjectives form and use

Comparative adjectives Superlative adjectives

Adjs with one-syllable: The hamburger is cheaper The hot dog is the cheapest.
cheap (than the cheeseburger)
ending in silent e: safe safer (omit final e) the safest (omit final e)
Adjs ending in a consonant +
y: dry drier (change y to i) the driest (change y to i)
Adjs ending in a single vowel bigger (double the final the biggest
+ a single consonant: big consonant)
Adjs with two or more
syllables: expensive more expensive the most expensive
Irregular adjectives: better/worse// the best/worst//furthest/farthest//
good/bad/far/old further/farther// oldest/eldest
older/elder
Exceptions:
One-syllable adjectives ending in ed and the adjectives real, right and wrong are used with
more/most: more bored.
Many two-syllable adjectives ending in -ly, -y, -ow, -r and -l and the adjectives common,
handsome, mature, pleasant, polite, simple, stupid can have both more/most or -er/-est: more
lively/livelier, maturer/more mature.
We can use elder/eldest only when we talk about peoples ages.
Mary is the eldest/the oldest.
but My sister is elder older (than me).
Further/farther = a greater distance: Ive moved further away from them.
but Let me know if you have any further questions.
(=extra/more)
Comparatives emphasis and strength
Stronger: even, (very) much, far, a lot, lots (infl), considerably, a great deal + comp
Weaker: a little, slightly, a bit (infl), somewhat (fl) + comp: a bit cheaper than
Superlatives
Stronger: by far, easily (infl) + superlative: by far the cleverest student
Weaker: one of, some of + superlative: NY is one of the largest cities in the world.
Equality: The fishburger is no more expensive/isnt any cheaper than the hamburger.
Less and least: I prefer this pattern; its less bold than the others. / the least expensive; it
isnt as bold as the others. (infl)
Adjectives with as, so, too, enough and such:
The hamburger is as expensive as the fish burger. (equal)
Shes nearly as old as I am. (almost equal just about, about, almost)
The hotdog isnt as expensive as the hamburger. (negative comparison)
Or isnt nearly (quite) expensive as / isnt anything like as expensive as the cheeseburger
is nothing like as expensive as
(infl)
It was so dark (that) I couldnt see her face.
It was too dark (for me) | (to see her face).
It wasnt light enough (for me) | (to see her face).
It was so dark as to make it impossible to see her face. (formal)
It wasnt as bad a result as Id expected. / such a bad result as I expected.
It was such a dark night that I couldnt really see her face.
Other types:
Progressive comparison: became smaller and smaller (and smaller)
Combined comparison: The longer you leave it, the worse itll get.
Contrastive comparison: Im more sad than disappointed. / not so much disappointed as
sad.
Like/as: as interesting as (adj); like a skyscraper (noun), working as a waiter
(function).

Adverbs

Def. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, other words or whole clauses.

Form: just, well, soon, too (proper), kind of, of course (fixed phrases), easily, really (adj + ly),
homeward(noun + ward), healthwise (noun + wise)
Compounds: sometimes (some + times),...
Confusing forms
Adverbs which have the same form as adjectives: close, dead, fast, long, wrong.
Adverbs with the same base but different meanings:
direct (without stopping) directly (soon), high (to a great height) highly (extremely),
hard (severely) hardly (scarcely), right (direction/correctly) / rightly (correct in my opinion)
Shes a real nice girl. / The teams running good this season. (US infl E)
Use:
E.g. His answers were pretty good. (adverb modifying adjectives most common use)
The French team did really well. (adverb modifying adverbs)
Her news came as quite a shock. (adverb modifying a noun phrase)
In our school roughly fifty students have mobile phones. (adv modifying numbers)
Adverbs adding information about the time, manner or place of an action/state:
E.g. He hit the ball hard and this time it flew into the back of the net.
Comparison of adverbs: more/most frequently; faster/fastest
Position of adverbs: those which modify adjectives, adverbs or noun phrases come before (front
position); adverbs which modify verbs have several positions.
E.g. These days I probably take my health more seriously.
front mid final
but These days I take more seriously all those things I used to take for granted.
long object
Front position: yesterday, never (in inversions)
E.g. Never have I seen such a disturbing sight. (verb before the subject)
Mid position:
Adverbs of indefinite frequency: always, normally, rarely, often
Adverbs of degree: absolutely, almost, hardly, quite, rather, totally, slightly
Adverbs of certainty: certainly, definitely, probably
One-word adverbs of time: already, finally, immediately, just, soon, still
Other adverbs: even, only
E.g. She always arrives by taxi. (but She is always on time)
You can just see the coast. (after the first auxiliary/modal verb)
but I sometimes dont understand his arguments. (negative auxiliary)
I dont really like him. (slightly)
but I really dont like him. (emphatic = I hate him)
Final position: yet, a lot, any more, any longer, too, as well, monthly, well.
E.g. They arent selling any more.
He plays the guitar well.
If there are several adverbs in final position: manner + place + time:
The statue was lifted carefully onto the plinth before the ceremony.
Sentence adverbs
Sentence adverbs are usually put at the front or end of a sentence:
Economically, the current government has been a resounding success. (viewpoint
adverb)
Incidentally, I noticed they were looking for new players.
I dont like it, frankly!
Attitude adverbs: Youve obviously been eating too many sweets!
Other examples: admittedly (qualifies or contradicts), apparently, fortunately, clearly (sentence
adverbs or adverbs of manner).

Pronouns

Pronouns are words which we substitute for nouns in order to avoid repetition.
Personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns

Form
subject object (possessive possessive reflexive
(personal) (personal) adjectives) pronouns pronouns
pronouns pronouns
I me my mine myself
you you your yours yourself/yourselves
he him his his himself
she her her hers herself
it it its (no pronoun) itself
we us our ours ourselves
they them their theirs themselves
Use
E.g. Paul Allen plans to set up a rock music museum. He was a founder of Microsoft. (subject
pronoun)
I met Julian yesterday. I like him, dont you? (direct object, object pronoun)
Those books belong to Julian. Can you give them to him, please? (indirect object,
object pron.)
Did the neighbours leave that here? It looks like their deckchair. (possessive adj-
belonging)
No, its not their deckchair. Its ours! Dont you recognize it? (possessive pronoun)

Subject and object pronouns

There are some cases where we can use either an object pronoun or a subject pronoun, after as
and than in comparative patterns:
The ski instructor didnt ski any better than I. ( very formal)
The instructor didnt actually ski any better than me. (informal, more common)
After as and than, we can use a subject pronoun with an auxiliary or modal verb:
The ski instructor didnt ski as well as I do/did/can.

Modifying pronouns
In some exclamations we modify object pronouns, usually with an adjective:
Look what Ive done! Silly me! Lucky old him/her.
We can use a noun after a pronoun to clarify who or what we are referring to:
I want you boys to report to the Head after this class!

Uses of he, she and it

We use it to refer to animals, things, ideas, or actions, or to an unborn or young baby (sex
unknown):
Mary brought her new baby into the shop yesterday its very cute.
We use it as an empty subject:
Who can that be at the door? Its my neighbour. He often calls this late.
We use he and she to refer to people and also to animals, especially domestic pets:
We had to take our dog, Damon, to the vet yesterday. Hes got ear mites.
If the subject or object is not clearly of either gender, ways to avoid using he, him and his include
the use of he/she (him/her, his/her) in writing, or they (them/their) or plural in speech or writing:
A doctor always makes decisions according to the best of his/her/their knowledge.
Doctors always make decisions according to the best of their knowledge.
We often use they (them/their) after indefinite pronouns:
Someone called you from Grants Garage. Oh, did they leave their name?
Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive pronouns are formed with self/selves. We usually use reflexive pronouns when the
subject and object are the same person or thing:
Quick! The babys burnt her. Quick! The babys burnt herself!
Compare:
Ben treated him to an ice cream. (him = someone else, not Ben)
Ben treated himself to an ice cream. (himself = Ben)
Emphatic use of reflexive pronouns
We can use reflexive pronouns to emphasize the subject or object to a sentence. The pronoun can
come after the subject, after the auxiliary (if there is one) or verb, after the object or at the end of
the sentence:
I have used this technique on a number of occasions.

myself
Myself, I dont like the new fashion for flared trousers.
I dont like the new fashion for flared trousers, myself.
We use (all) (by) myself/yourself, etc. to emphasize without any help or completely alone:
The garden looks amazing. Did you do it (all) (by) yourself?

Reciprocal pronouns
Compare the use of reciprocal pronouns (each other/one another) and reflexive pronouns:
Steve and Elaine blamed only themselves for the break-up of their marriage.
(They both blamed the two of them and nobody else.)
Steve and Elaine blamed each other for the break-up of their marriage.
(Steve blamed Elaine and Elaine blamed Steve.)
Each other usually refers to two subjects, one another to more than two, though we tend to use
the two forms interchangeably in informal English:
He spoke fast and his words tumbled out, tripping over each other/one another.

Impersonal pronouns you, we, they, one

When we wish to express general feelings and opinions, we can use you, we or they:
You can wear whatever you like to go to the theatre these days.
We can wear whatever we like to go to the theatre these days. (including ourselves)
They behave really badly at football matches nowadays. (excluding ourselves)
Did you know theyve put the parking charges up again? (people in authority)
One can sympathise with the sentiments behind the actions of the strikers. (formal)
We can use one as a subject or object pronoun, and as a reflexive pronoun:
One tends to learn to fend for oneself if one lives alone.
US English rarely uses one, but prefers you.

Indefinite pronouns and adverbs

Form and use

person object place manner

someone/body something somewhere somehow
anyone/body anything anywhere anyhow
everyone/body everything everywhere
no one/body nothing nowhere

E.g. What would you like for your birthday?

Oh, anything. (= no particular present)
Well, theres something I would like (= a particular present)
If we use these pronouns and adverbs as subjects, they take a singular verb:
Everything is going smoothly and NASA expects to launch the shuttle as scheduled.
 NUTRITION AND DIETETICS
1ST YEAR

Sample vocabulary lessons

The study of the human body

The human body is one of the most amazing structures in nature and many mysteries
concerning it have not yet been solved.
The human body is like a chemical factory with billions of cells that do the work, not by
means of mechanical devices but with chemical reactions. The tools they use are certain
specialized proteins called ferments or enzymes. For almost every act our body undertakes
biochemically it uses a specific enzyme to increase the speed of the chemical reactions
tremendously. And what is peculiar about enzymes is that they are not used up when they finish
speeding up a reaction but are available to do it again.
Man's interest in his well-being is as old as recorded history, probably as old as man
himself. He has succeeded to develop a vast knowledge of his body, through years of
observation, experimentation and application of known facts.
Many sciences study the normal human body. Biology deals with the study of the living
matter both (vegetal) plant and animal.Since biology is such a broad field it became necessary to
divide it into two major areas: zoology and botany.
Zoology is the biology of animals as distinguished from botany which is concerned with
plants, whether in a living or in a fossil state. There are many specialized subdivisions within
this area.
We call hygiene the science of preserving health. Its practical aim is to render growth
more perfect, decay less rapid, life more vigorous, and death more remote. It is a very wide
subject embracing everything which affects physical and mental well-being of man. It requires
acquaintance with many various sciences such as anatomy, physiology, physics, chemistry,
meteorology, epidemiology etc. Hygiene is concerned with the rules and practices essential for
healthful living.
In order to understand the basis for such rules and practices it is essential to know the
structure of the body. The science of anatomy gives us information on the exact form, position,
size and relationship of the various structures of the human body in health. If we were concerned
only with body structures that can be seen with the unaided eye, the study would be called gross
anatomy (macroscopical). The science dealing with the minute or microscopic structure of
tissues and organs that make up the body is called histology or microanatomy.

Many other specialized areas of study in anatomy have developed such as:
a) systemic anatomy, which stresses the various systems of the body;
b) regional anatomy dealing with specific regions of the body, such as the chest, the
abdomen etc.;
c) developmental anatomy (embryology) being primarily concerned with the growth
and development of the body and its various structures;
d) comparative anatomy which compares the structures of animals with each other and
with man;
 e) pathological anatomy having emphasis on diseased structures and their effects on
the body.
There is a big difference between medical anatomy and artistic anatomy.
Medical anatomy dissects, separates, and divides the human system into the finer
microscopic details of forms to the very cell structure itself. Artistic anatomy visualizes,
combines and fuses the whole from the parts.
It is not enough to know the structures of the body. We must also know how the various
parts of the body function and this leads to the branch of science called physiology. The study of
physiology has been subdivided into three specialized areas:
a) general physiology which is concerned with how the human body normally functions
and how various body activities work together to maintain the healthy body;
b) cellular physiology dealing with activities of individual cells;
c) abnormal physiology (pathophysiology) is the study of disordered function or of
function in diseased tissues.
There are many various branches of biological science that depend upon the study of
anatomy and physiology as a basis.
Genetics stresses inheritance and factors involved in heredity.
Embryology is concerned with growth of the individual form the one-cell stage to the
adult.
Molecular biology studies the relationship of the laws of physics and chemistry to the
living phenomena.
Pathology deals with the cause of disease and deviation from normal function and
structure.
Psychology refers to the study of the mind and behaviour.
Pharmacology is the study of the response of living organisms to chemical stimuli. These
various fields of study are not isolated. They are more and more interrelated and interdependent.
Many horizons have been widened in the last two decades. Electron microscopy,
determination of chromosome abnormalities, chromatography, analysis of nucleic acids, and
special immunologic identification techniques have widened the observational horizon of
oncology. Furthermore, cross fertilization between several basic sciences such as enzymology,
virology, cytology and genetics, has laid the basis for the new discipline of molecular biology
and for the intriguing concept of malignancy as a molecular disease.

Basic phenomena of living organisms

All organisms, whether plants or animals, are made up of a specific material called
protoplasm. This is the stuff of life. The word itself from the Greek protos and plasma means
the first thing formed. This protoplasm is made of units that have a distinct form. These units are
called cells.
Protoplasm, this inconceivably complex, self-renewing substance is an organization of a
hundred million chemical compounds, every compound a molecule with a specific task all in
action. The parts are atoms, ions, electrons. And they do not stand still. Movement is their life,
and movement in the world of atoms is unimaginably swift. If an atom leaps from one compound
to another which we call a chemical reaction the leap is performed in less than a millionth of
a second. Therefore, the modern biophysicist does not count in seconds but in nanoseconds or
thousandths of the millionth part of a second. All events in the world of atoms unroll with atomic
speed and protoplasm is an organization of atoms unimaginable in number and in velocity of
action. We cannot see the protoplasm with the naked eye; we must have an instrument that
magnifies a hundred million times in order to be able to see all its fine details.
In 1924, Louis de Broglie made one of the most spectacular inventions of the beginning of
the 20th century. He discovered that electron particles behaved like waves, as does light. It turned
out that their wave length is one hundred thousand times shorter than the wave length of ordinary
light. As a result, electron microscopes were invented, a stream of electrons taking the role of
light beams and magnetic fields serving as lenses. With the electron microscope magnifications
up to two hundred thousand times are common and, with photographic enlargements we now
view specimens magnified over one million times. This has literally opened up a new field of
investigations inside the cell.
A human cell, greatly magnified as seen in an electron microscope, has a nucleus in the
centre filled with chromatin granules and a dark mass the nucleolus. During cell division the
chromatin and the nucleolus condense into the chromosomes. Surrounding the nucleus is the
dark wreath of the Golgi body. At the top of the cell is the centrosome with strands radiating
from it. To the left, seen as black and white specks, are the microsomes and just below them the
considerably larger mitochondria. At the bottom are the lysosomes.
Protoplasm is composed of protein, carbohydrates, fats, inorganic salts, possibly hormones,
vitamins, and water closely associated.
The following physiological properties of protoplasm may be used to distinguish living
from non-living matter:
1) auto regulation (the ability to control all life process);
2) contractility;
3) irritability (the ability to respond to stimuli);
4) conductivity;
5) metabolism (the sum of all the chemical processes going on within a cell
tissue, or organ);
6) growth occurs by intussusception, on building up of new material by
combinations of smaller molecules, such as the formations of proteins from
aminoacids. Growth in living matter is described as an increase in numbers
accompanied by an increase in mass.
There many other properties by means of which we attempt to judge whether matter is living or
non-living:
a) adaptation (the ability of the cell to modify its behaviour in accordance with a
change in environment);
b) reproduction;
c) spontaneity;
d) rhythmicity (the repeated occurrence of events in a regular sequence, for
example heart beats and breathing) and
e) memory (the ability to profit from previous experience by adjustment of their
behaviour).
In some cases, it is very difficult to say whether life does or does not exist. The viruses
have not yet been definitely classified as living or non-living; they are ultramicroscopic infective
agents that cause various diseases. A virus is little more than genetic material wrapped in a sac of
protein and its life cycle is extremely simple. First, a virus approaches its victim, which may be a
bacterial cell, or any other type of cell, attaches itself to it, and injects its hereditary material into
it. Inside the cell the injected chromosomes proliferate, exploiting the protoplasm of their host.
From the exhausted cell hundreds of new parasitic viruses are disseminated. This power of
reproduction seems, however, to be the only living characteristic of the virus.
In order to understand the fundamentals of physiology we have to know some of the
physico-chemical phenomena associated with the activilies of protoplasm.These phenomena are
important to all living substance and they consist of:
a) surface energy or surface tension; b) adsorption; c) the colloidal state: d) viscosity; e)
diffusion and f) osmosis.
Surface energy is the energy produced at cell surfaces due to molecular action. Adsorption
may be defined as the tendency of molecules or ions to concentrate at a surface. A colloidal
solution is a suspension of molecular aggregates. Although the colloidal particles cannot be
seen with the highest microscopic magnification, their reflection can be seen by means of the
ultramicroscope. Being a coloid, protoplasm may vary in its consistency, or viscosity. It may be
fluid at one moment and jellylike the next, and the change may be either reversible or
irreversible. Diffusion is the continuous movement of molecules in a gaseous, liquid, or solid
state from an area of greater to one of lesser concentration until the molecules are equally
distributed throughout the entire accessible region. The tendency of fluids to pass through
separating semipermeable membrane, as the wall of a living cell so as to equalize concentrations
on both sides of the membrane is known as osmosis.
Enzymes are complex substances, some of them proteins, which act as catalysts for the
chemical reactions going on in the living organism. They are classified according to their action.
Their names end in -ase. Esterases can hydrolyze esters; for example, lipase can split fats into
fatty acids and glycerin. Oxidases, as their name implies, assist in oxidation- reduction reactions
and so on. Therefore much of the chemistry taking place in living organisms happens because of
the presence of enzymes. All these reactions could not be carried out in vitro (outside the body)
without the aid of very concentrated acids or temperatures, that is, acids much more concen-
trated or temperatures much higher than the body could stand. No enzyme has been produced in
the laboratory except by living cells. It has been estimated that there may be twenty thousand or
thirty thousand different enzymes in the human body each constructed in such a way as to
permit it to serve as an effective catalyst for a particular chemical reaction useful to the
organism.

The organization of the body

All living things presenting a visible structure are said to be organized. They possess a
definite structure although, doubtless, the simplest particles of living matter posses a highly
complex molecular structure, which is far beyond the reach of vision. The morphological
differentiation of the cell-protoplasm is the expression of a physiological division of labour of
fundamental importance.
One cell specializes in, for example, secretion, another in contractility, another in receiving
and carrying stimuli and so forth, so that we have the gland cell, the muscle cell, the nerve cell,
each appropriately grouped with its fellows to constitute the particular tissue or organ - gland,
muscle or brain.
A tissue may be defined as a group of cells, all of which have the same origin,. structure
and function. There are four general groups: epithelial, connective, muscular and nervous.
 Tissues within the bodies of animals develop to form organs, and the organs form systems, each
of which is concerned with carrying out vital functions. Nine systems may easily be identified.
Historically the oldest and most simple tissue is the gelatinous tissue, called the
mesenchyme. The mesenchymal cells turn into many different cells, among them the fibroblast,
which was given this name because it manufactures fibers. These fibers are the characteristic
feature of connective tissue. In the young the connective fibers are taut and elastic; in the old
they have lost much of their elasticity. Thus the first signs of aging show themselves in the
connective tissue fibers.
Collections of connective tissue are called ligaments, tendons. Where the connective
tissue must do heavy duty, the fibers form ligaments. The strongest ligaments are those that tie
the trunk to the thigh bones so that we can balance on these audaciously constructed stilts, our
legs. There is a famous story which proves how strong the ligaments of the hips are. When the
regicide Ravaillac stabbed Henry IV in Paris during the celebration of the monarch's wedding,
the murderer was tortured to death. As the climax, the still quivering body was stretched
between four horses and an attempt was made to "quarter" it. But the ligaments of the hips
would not yield, and only by using axes was it possible to separate the limbs from the torso.
Fat tissue serves the human body as a reserve of energy, as padding and protection, and
has insulation against loss of heat. But too much fat is dangerous.
Bone is composed of a gluey substance collagen, which gives it flexibility, and of calcium
and phosphate, which give it rigidity. One of the greatest threats to the aged is the ever-
increasing fragility of the bones; this is due to collagen substance. Often the aging person slips
in the bathtub and fractures his hip. Has anyone ever heard of a child breaking his hip in a
bathtub?
If we proposed to the best architect to build a house that would expand every day, he
would think it is an absurdly impossible proposal. But this is a miracle that takes place in every
human body. The bone does the job with an army of osteoclasts or bone-breakers and
osteoblasts or bone-builders and imperceptibly, as the child grows, the skeleton becomes larger
without ever interrupting the functions of the body. Thus the problem of a skeleton that must
grow for fifteen or more years without for a moment interrupting the activities of life is one that
nature has solved in masterly fashion.
The structure of bone is testimony to natures architectural genius. Bones are continually
undergoing reconstruction and the stresses to which they are subjected cause the formation first
of fibres and then of girders along the line of stress. Gradually the fine filigree work of the inner
bone builds up. In Saint Peters cathedral and the temple Taj Mahal we admire the architecture of
man; in living bones we see the architecture of nature.
The skeletal system has four major functions:
a. it lands support;
b. it serves as a point of attachment of muscles;
c. it protects the vital organs from external forces, the hard bony layers cover the
brain, enclose the spinal cord etc.;
d. it forms the blood cells. In the adult all the erythrocytes and most types of
leukocytes, plus the thrombocytes or platelets, are produced in the red marrow of
bones.
The skeleton also serves as an efficient storage place for calcium, iron and certain metals
which would be extremely toxic if free in the body.
The muscular system is concerned with movements of the skeletal framework of the body.
 The nervous system coordinates the activity of nearly all the other organs and tissues.
The circulatory system transports oxygen, nutrients and products resulting from
metabolism, from the cells to the exhausted organs.
The respiratory system brings oxygen into the body and removes carbon dioxide.
The digestive system breaks down food that must precede its absorption into the blood
stream for transport to cells of the body and subsequent use.
The excretory system is concerned with ridding the body of waste products of metabolism.
The endocrine system, whose glandular organs maintain the delicately balanced function of
cells and tissues, is the second coordinating system of the body. The difference between one
coordinating system and the other is that the effects of endocrine system appear rather slowly
and are of longer duration than in the case of changes caused by the nervous system.
The reproductive system is concerned with the production of ova and sperm. It also
provides nutritional conditions during the prenatal life of the newly formed individual.
The viscera are the interior organs of the body. Viscera is the plural of viscus, a name given
to any large interior organ. This term can be applied to the organs in any of the body cavities,
although it is commonly used especially in reference to the organs of the abdomen.
The viscera are found in the two chief cavities marking up the interior of the body: the
ventral, which is divided by the muscular diaphragm into the thoracic and the abdominopelvic
cavities, and the dorsal, in the cranium and the vertebral canal.
The thoracic (chest) cavity contains the lungs, trachea, heart, great blood vessels, nerves
and esophagus.
The abdominopelvic cavity is further subdivided into two parts:
a) the upper area containing the stomach, liver, gall bladder, small and large intestines,
spleen, pancreas and the kidneys;
b) the lower part which contains the urinary bladder, sigmoid colon, rectum and reproductive
organs.
The brain and spinal cord are located in the dorsal body cavity. The brain is located in the
cranial portion of the cavity formed by the skull bones. The vertebrae enclose the vertebral
portion of the dorsal cavity which contains the spinal cord.

The digestive system

The digestive system performs the essential task of breaking up food into its chemical
building units, otherwise food cannot be absorbed through the intestinal wall and pass into the
blood and lymph of the body.
Digestion is the chemical separation of the complex molecules of food into the simple one
that can be absorbed. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are the three basic foodstuffs. Besides the
basic food substances proteins, carbohydrates, fat, water, minerals a healthy diet must also
contain vitamins.
The carbohydrates are sources of energy, providing fuel for the body machine. This is the
chemical term for the bulk of our food: bread, flour, cereals, potaloes, sugar. The most common
carbohydrate is C6H1206, which is glucose or fruclose. This is the sugar that plants compose out
of the carbon-dioxide of the air and water and solar energy. More complex carbohydrates form
the starches.
Proteins are the basic material for building up protoplasm, the material of living substance.
Chemically proteins are formidable chains of amino acids. There are more than one hundred
amino acids known to occur in nature, but only about twenty- three of these join in forming
protein chains and twenty are important for human proteins.
Simple fats are compounds of one molecule of glycerol and three molecules of fatty acids.
The fatty acids consist of long rows of atoms, so that the breakdown of a molecule releases the
considerable amount of energy contained in the bonds between atoms. Thus the body can use fat
as a kind of high octane fuel. Burning slowly but intensely, the fats yield more than double the
energy of equal weights of carbohydrates and proteins.
The mouth performs five functions: 1. collecting food 2. salivation. 3. mastication 4. bolus
formation 5. starch digestion. At first the bolus, the nutritive cartridge formed in the mouth, must
pass a dangerous crossing the opening of the trachea, or windpipe. It passes the movable
cartilage known as the epiglottis. Thereafter is thrust along by peristaltic waves until it reaches
the stomach.
The stomach works mechanically through its muscles fibres and chemically through its
glands. Its basic function is the further moistening of the food, churning and grinding it and
partly dissolving it in the gastric juice, which contains hydrochloric acid and the protein-
digesting enzyme pepsin.
The food enters the intestine tract made up of the small and the large intestines thirty-feet
long. The small intestine is much the longer section about twenty five feet in length. It is
confined in a tight space and although the loops intertwine they manage not to become enlarged.
Food moves slowly from loop to loop to allow to be mixed and chemically decomposed. It may
take hours before the food undergoes the process of absorption through the four million villi.
These villi are in constant motion like the fingers of sea anemones, dipping into the digestive
broth, sucking up molecules from it, and making them part of the body. Yesterday meat, eggs or
milk, today human blood and tissue!
The most important segment of the small intestine is the duodenum. The duodenum merits
special attention because there the main glands of the digestive system, the liver and pancreas,
empty their secretions for they attack on the three types of nutritional substances: starches,
proteins and fats.
The pancreas is the most effective of the digestive glands. Its various enzymes break down
the starches into glycogen, the glycogen into maltose and the maltose into glucose. It breaks the
proteins first into polypeptides, then peptides and even into amino acids a tremendous task!
although the enzymes coming from intestinal glands help the final formation into amino acids.
The pancreatic lipase splits the complex molecules of fats into glycerine and fatty acids. The
pancreas tissue is interspersed with islets of a hormonal tissue, which produce insulin and
glucagon.
The liver is considered one of the busiest organs of the body. It has several, entirely different
functions:
a) It serves a filter from the intestines upward toward the heart in the systemic circulation.
The portal vein divides into millions of blood vessels among the liver cells inside the liver. The
liver cells swarm around the blood from the intestines and filter it. This blood contains the amino
acids and the carbohydrates and the multitude of other ingredients of all the foods we take in.
b) The liver cells test all the imports and decide whether to admit or reject them.
c) The liver becomes the storehouse of digested food.
d) It also detoxifies them.
e) The liver is an enormous chemical factory for the metabolism of carbohydrate, protein and
fat.
 f) The liver produces the bile, the digestive juice. The bile drips through the biliary channels
into a sac, the gall bladder. The bile remains in the gall bladder for hours and in time may form
concretions or stones. Most persons do not even know that they carry these dubious gems.
The large intestine is the last part of the digestive tract. The final section is the rectum. In
contrast to the labyrinthine maze of the small intestines, the large intestine has a relatively fixed
shape. It begins as the caecum and ends as the rectum. It is the waste-receiver of the body.
There, bacteria, microscopic fungi, yeast cells and algae thrive undisturbed by acids and
enzymes. In the colon an entirely new process begins: the fermentation of the indigestible
residue of food by several hundred million micro organisms.
One of the most remarkable creations in the human body is the extraordinary pair of organs,
the kidneys, which filters waste products out of 180 quarts of blood fluid every twenty-four
hours. Each human kidney is composed of a million filters called glomeruli attached to a million
long, twisted tubules. As the filtrate flows through the tubules, the cells of the tubular wall
reabsorb over ninety-nine per cent of the water and send it back into the blood stream.
Water is the vehicle of almost all metabolic processes. About a quarter of an hour after we
drink a liquid, some of it appears as urine in the bladder. To get there it puts a burden not only on
the kidneys but on the heart and the liver as well. The heart must pump every gulp of fluid, the
liver must do work of screening, and the kidneys must do the job of filtering the urine.
A trained investigator can see many significant things in the urine the kidney produces. If he
examines the urine microscopically, dead cells normally shed from the walls of the bladder or of
the urethra are seen. If the filter sheds whole rows of cells, if protein is lost in the urine or if
phagocytes are visible, the investigator knows that the kidney is ill and the patient may be
suffering from nephritis, an inflammation of the kidney. The trained investigator can even tell
whether the inflammation is recent or chronic.
The kidneys filter about a hundred compounds the end products of metabolism. The most
conspicuous are the nitrates, the ashes of the amino group NH3 , which characterize the amino
acids, the chain links of the proteins. The chemical group NH 3 appears in the urine as urea. The
human body produces approximately thirty grams of urea daily.

Fats (Lipids)

Occurrence and composition of fats. In terms of our everyday living, by far the most
important esters are those occurring naturally in animal and vegetable fats. Liquid fats are often
referred to as oils. Such materials as corn oil, coconut oil, cotton-seed oil, palm oil, tallow, bacon
grease, and butter are made up largely of esters of carboxylic acids. These esters are derived
from a single alcohol, glycerol, HOH 2CCHOHCH 2OH, and hence are known as glycerides.
With very few exceptions, the carboxylic acids from which fats are derived are all straight-
chain compounds, ranging in size from three to eighteen carbons; except for the C 3 and C 2
compounds, only acids containing an even number of carbon atoms are present in any substantial
amounts. Besides saturated acids, there are unsaturated acids containing one or more double
bonds per molecule.
Each fat is made up of glycerides derived from many different carboxylic acids. The
proportions of the various acids vary from fat to fat; each fat has its characteristic composition,
which does not differ widely from sample to sample.
Fats make up one of the three major classes of foods (the others being carbohydrates and
proteins); they are used in enormous amounts as raw materials for many industrial processes.
The specialized chemistry of fats is vast and complicated particularly the biochemistry and
technology. In the following sections we shall examine a tiny fraction of the chemistry of fats so
that we may see the application of the fundamental chemistry of esters to these more complicated
compounds.

Hydrolysis of fats. Saponification. Soap. The making of soap is one of the oldest
chemical synthesis. (It is not nearly so old, of course, as the production of ethyl alcohol; mans
desire for cleanliness is much newer than his desire for intoxication). When the German
tribesmen of Caesars time boiled goat tallow with potash leached from the ashes of wood fires,
they were carrying out the same chemical reactions as the one carried out on a tremendous scale
by modern soap manufactures: hydrolysis of glycerides. Hydrolysis yields salts of the
carboxylic acids, and glycerol.
Ordinary soap today is simply a mixture of sodium salts of long-chain fatty acids. It is a
mixture because the fat from which it is made is a mixture, and for washing our hands or our
clothes a mixture is just as good as a single pure salt. Soap may vary in composition and method
of processing; if made from olive oil it is Castile soap; alcohol can be added to make it
transparent; air can be beaten in to make it float; perfumes, dyes and germicides can be added; if
a potassium salt (instead of a sodium salt), it is soft soap. Chemically, however, soap remains
pretty much the same and does its job in the same way.
The cleansing action of soap is an extremely complicated matter. A soap molecule has a
polar end, COONa+, and non-polar end, the long carbon chain of 12 to 18 carbons; the polar
end is water-soluble, the non-polar end is oil-soluble. Ordinarily oil droplets in contact with
water tend to coalesce so that there is an oil layer and a water layer but the presence of soap
changes this. The non-polar ends of soap molecules dissolve in the oil droplet, leaving the
carboxylate ends projecting into the surrounding water layer. Due to the presence of the
negatively charged carboxylate groups each oil droplet is surrounded by an ionic atmosphere.
Repulsion between similar charges keeps the oil droplets from coalescing, and a stable emulsion
of oil in water is thus obtained. Soap cleans by emulsifying the fat and grease that make up and
contained the dirt. This emulsifying, and hence cleansing property is not limited to carboxylic
salts, but is possessed by any molecule containing a large non-polar portion and a polar portion.
Hard water contains calcium and magnesium salts, when react with soap to form insoluble
calcium and magnesium carboxylates (the ring in the bathtub).
The lipids form a group of naturally occurring fat-like substances which are all insoluble in
water but soluble in the fat solvents such as ether, chloroform and benzene. Lipids are generally
esters of fatty acids. They are sometimes referred to as lipides or lipins, but the term lipin should
be used only as a suffix, for example phospholipin. The appropriate adjective is lipoid or
lipoidal.
The lipids can be divided into simple lipids, including the fats and the waxes, and the
compound lipids, including the phospholipids and the glycolipids. The fats are all esters of
glycerol with fatty acids. Most fats are greasy solids insoluble in water but readily soluble in fat
solvents, including hot, but not cold ethanol. Some fats, for example triolein, are liquid at room
temperature and such fats are popularly called oils, for example olive oil. The term oil is better
avoided in this sense since it also commonly applied to mineral oils which are not glyceryl esters
but hydrocarbons. Some fats are solid at room temperature but are liquid at the temperature of
the body; thus, human fat is said to melt at about 17 degrees. The melting points of fats are
always higher than their solidification points; for example, tristearin melts at 72 degrees but
solidifies again at 52 degrees. Fats may be hydrolysed by boiling with an alkali such as sodium
hydroxide to yield glycerol and the sodium salts of the fatty acids which are, of course, soaps.
This process is termed saponification. Fats may also be hydrolysed by superheated steam, and by
enzymes called lipases such as that found in the external secretion of the pancreas.
When fats are exposed to the air for any length of time they undergo a certain amount of
oxidation, and they also suffer partial hydrolysis with liberation of free fatty acids. A fat thus
becomes much less palatable and is usually said to have gone rancid. This process of oxidation
can be prevented to a large extent by the presence of small amounts of organic substances which
are usually termed antioxidants. Many phenols act in this way and are thus of considerable
importance in the food industry. Highly unsaturated fats, such as linseed oil, undergo
considerable oxidation on exposure to air, forming though waterproof films. Such oils, called
drying oils, are extensively used in the manufacture of paints and varnishes.
The waxes are esters of fatty acids not with glycerol but with complex monohydric
alcohols. Beeswax, for example, is an ester of palmitic acid with myricyl alcohol (C30H 61OH),
and spermaceti from the sperm whale is an ester of palmitic acid with cetyl alcohol (C 16H33OH).
Many animalwaxes are esters of the steroid alcohol, cholesterol.
The phospholipids (phosphatides) are widely distributed in animal tissues and appear to
play an important part in the structure of the cell, particularly the cell membrane, and in the
process of fat metabolism. They are especially abundant in brain and nervous tissues. By virtue
of the presence of a polar group they can combine with protein to give biologically important
compounds known as lipoproteins. Thus a considerable proportion of the protein of the blood
plasma is loosely combined with phosphatides.
The phosphatides differ from the fats in containing phosphoric acid and an organic
nitrogenous base.
Glycolipids. The chief glycolipids are the cerebrosides which occur in particularly large
amounts in brain tissue and in the myelin sheath of nerves. They include the substances
phrenosin and kerasin, and are peculiar in containing the sugar, galactose in their structure. On
hydrolysis they yield fatty acids, sphingosine and galactose.

Carbohydrates

Introduction. In the leaf of a plant, the simple compounds carbon dioxide and water are
combined to form the sugar (+)-glucose. This process, known as photosynthesis, requires
catalysis by green colouring matter chlorophyll, and requires energy in the form of light.
Thousands of (+)-glucose molecules can be combined to form the much larger molecules of
cellulose, which constitutes the supporting framework of the plant. (+)-Glucose molecules can
also be combined, in a some what different way, to form the large molecules of starch, which is
then stored in the seeds to serve as food for a new, growing plant.
When eaten by animal, the starch and in the case of certain animals also the cellulose is
broken down into the original (+)-glucose units. These can be carried by the blood stream to the
liver to be recombined into glycogen, or animal starch; when the need arises the glycogen can be
broken down once more into (+)-glucose. (+)-Glucose is carried by the blood stream to the
tissues, where is oxidized, ultimately to carbon dioxide and water, with the release of the energy
originally supplied as sunlight. Some of the (+)-glucose is converted into fats; some reacts with
nitrogen-containing compounds to form amino acids, which in turn are combined to form the
proteins that make up a large part of the animal body.
 (+)-Glucose, starch, and glycogen, all belong to the class of organic compounds known as
carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the ultimate source of most of our food: we eat starch-
containing grain, or feed it to animals to be converted into meat and fats which we then eat. We
clothe ourselves with cellulose in the form of cotton and linen, rayon and cellulose acetate. We
build houses and furniture from cellulose in the form of wood. Thus carbohydrates provide us
with the necessities of life: food, clothing and shelter.
Basic necessities aside, our present civilization depends to a surprising degree upon
cellulose, particularly as paper: the books and newspapers we read, the letters we write, the bills
we pay and the money and checks with which we pay them; marriage licenses, drivers licenses,
birth certificates, mortgages; paper in the form of bags and boxes, sheets and rolls.
The study of carbohydrates is one of the most exciting fields of organic chemistry. It
extends from the tremendously complicated problem of understanding the process of
photosynthesis to the equally difficult problem of unraveling the tangled steps in the enzyme-
catalyzed reconversion of (+)-glucose into carbon dioxide and water. Between these two
biochemical problems there lie the more traditional problems of the organic chemist:
determination of the structure and properties of the carbohydrates, and the study of their
conversion into other organic compounds
Definition and classification. Carbohydrates are polyhydroxy aldehydes, polyhydroxy
ketones, or compounds that can be hydrolyzed to them. A carbohydrate that can be hydrolyzed to
two monosaccharide molecules is called a disaccharide. A carbohydrate that can be hydrolyzed
to many monosaccharide molecules is called a polysaccharide.
A monosaccharide may be further classified. If it contains an aldehyde group it is known as
an aldose; if it contains a keto group it is known as a ketose. Depending upon the number of
carbon atoms it contains, a monosaccharide is known as a triose, tetrose, pentose, hexose, and
so on. An aldohexose, for example, is a six-carbon monosaccharide containing an aldehyde
group; a ketopentose is a five-carbon monosaccharide containing a keto group. Most naturally
occurring monosaccharides are pentoses or hexoses.
Carbohydrates that reduce Fehlings (or Benedicts) or Tollens reagent are known as
reducing sugars. All monosaccharides, whether aldose or ketose, are reducing sugars. Most
disaccharides are reducing sugars; sucrose (common table sugar) is a notable exception, for it is a
non-reducing sugar.

Amino acids and proteins

The name of protein is taken from the Greek proteinos which means first. This name is
well-chosen. Of all chemical compounds, proteins must almost certainly be ranked first, for they
are the substance of life.
Proteins make up a large part of the animal body, they hold it together, and they run it.
They are found in all living cells. They are the principal material of skin, muscle, tendons, nerves
and blood; of enzymes, antibodies and many hormones.
Chemically, proteins are high polymers. They are polyamides, and the monomers from
which they are derived are the amino carboxylic acids. A single protein molecule contains
hundreds or even thousands of amino acid units; these units can be of twenty-six or more
different kinds. The number of different combinations, that is, the number of different protein
molecules that are possible, is almost infinite. It is likely that tens of thousands of different
proteins are required to make up and run an animal body; and this set of proteins is not identical
with the set required by an animal of a different kind.
We shall look first at the chemistry of the amino acids, and then briefly at the proteins that
they make up. Our chief purpose will be to see the ways in which the structures of these
enormously complicated molecules are being worked out, and how, in the last analysis, all this
work rests on the basic principles of organic structural theory; on the concepts of bond angle and
bond length, group, size and shape, hydrogen bonding, resonance, acidity and basicity, optical
activity, configuration and conformation.
Structure of amino acids. Twenty-six acids have been found in proteins. Certain of these
are essential amino acids, which must be fed to young animals if proper growth is to take place:
these particular amino acids evidently cannot be synthesized by the animal from other materials
in its diet.
All are alpha-amino carboxylic acids; in two cases (proline and hydroxyproline) the
amino- group forms part of a pyrrolidine ring. This common feature gives the amino acids a
common set of chemical properties, one of which is the ability to form the long polyamide chains
that make up proteins.
In other aspects the structure of these compounds varies rather widely. In addition to the
carboxyl group and the amino- group alpha to it, some amino acids contain a second carboxyl
group (e.g. aspartic acid or glutamic acid), or a potential carboxyl group in the form of a
carboxamide (e.g. asparagine); these are called acidic amino acids. Some contain a second basic
group, which may be an amino group (e.g. lysine), a guanidine group (arginine) or the imidazole
ring (histidine); these are called basic amino acids. Some of the amino acids contain benzene or
heterocyclic ring systems, phenolic or alcoholic hydroxyl groups, halogen or sulphur atoms.
Each of these ring systems or functional groups undergoes its own typical set of reactions.
Classification and function of proteins. Denaturation. Proteins are divided into two
broad classes: fibrous proteins, which are insoluble in water, and globular proteins, which are
soluble in water or aqueous solutions of acids, bases or salts. (Because of the large size of protein
molecules, these solutions are colloidal). The difference in solubility between the two classes is a
result of a difference in molecular shape, which is indicated in a rough way by their names.
Molecules of fibrous proteins are long and threadlike, and tend to lie side by side to form
fibres; in some cases they are held together at many points by hydrogen bonds. As a result, the
intermolecular forces that must be overcome by a solvent are very strong.
Molecules of globular proteins are folded into compact units that often approach spheroidal
shapes. Hydrogen bonds are internal, and areas of contact between molecules are small.
Intermolecular forces here are comparatively weak.
Molecular and intermolecular structure determines not only the solubility of a protein but
also the general kind of function it performs.
Fibrous proteins serve as the chief structural materials of animal tissues, a function to
which their insolubility and fibreforming tendency suit them. They make up: keratin, in skin,
hair, nails, wool, horn and feathers; collagen, in tendons; myosin, in muscle; fibroin, in silk.
Globular proteins serve a variety of functions related to the maintenance and regulation of
the life process, functions that require mobility and hence solubility. They make up: all enzymes;
many hormones, as, for example, insulin (from the pancreas), thyroglobulin (from the thyroid
gland), ACTH (from the adrenal cortex); antibodies, responsible for allergies and for defense
against foreign organisms; albumin in eggs; hemoglobin, which transports oxygen from the lungs
to the tissues; fibrinogen, which is converted into the insoluble, fibrous protein fibrin, and thus
causes the clotting of blood.
Within the two broad classes, proteins are subdivided on the basis of physical properties,
especially solubility: for example, albumins (soluble in water, coagulated by heat), globulins
(insoluble in water, soluble in dilute salt solutions) etc.
Irreversible precipitation of proteins, called denaturation, is caused by heat, strong acids or
bases, or various other agents.
Coagulation of egg white by the heat, for example, is denaturation of the protein egg
albumin. The extreme ease with which many proteins are denaturated makes their study difficult.
Denaturation causes a fundamental change in a protein, in particular destroying any
physiological activity.
Only one other class of compounds, the nucleic acids, shows the phenomenon of
denaturation. Although closely related to the proteins, polypeptides do not undergo denaturation,
presumably because their molecules are smaller and less complex.

Acids, bases and salts

Acids. In his study of the properties of oxygen, Lavoisier noticed that when certain
elements were burnt in oxygen, the resulting oxide forms an acid with water e.g. carbon,
sulphur and phosphorus. Hence Lavoisier concluded (1777) that oxygen is an element common
to all acids and the presence of oxygen constitutes or produces their acidity. Lavoisier
considered oxygen to be the essential constituent of all acids.
With increasing knowledge, it was found that Lavoisiers oxygen theory of acids led to
confusion and error, and it was gradually abandoned by chemists when it was recognized that:
1. Some oxides form alkalis, not acids, with water e.g. sodium, potassium, and calcium
oxides.
2. Some acids do not contain oxygen C.L. Berthollet showed, in 1787, that hydrocyanic
(prussic) acid is a compound of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen, but contains no oxygen;
and he also came to a similar conclusion with regard to hydro-sulphuric-hydrogen
sulphide. But for some time Lavoisiers reputation had more weight than Berthollts
facts. In 1810-1811 Humphrey Davy proved that hydrochloric acid is a compound of
hydrogen and chlorine, and that no oxygen could be detected in the compound. In 1813
Davy also proved that hydriodic acid contained hydrogen and iodine, but no oxygen.
Hence, added Davy, acidity is not connected with the presence of any one element.
In 1815 Davy suggested the possibility that hydrogen, not oxygen, gives the acid characters
to the acids; but he did not rush to the other extreme and say that all hydrogen compounds are
necessarily acids. There is not one property which we can use as an absolute criterion or decisive
test of acidity. In a crude sort of way, it can be said that acids usually have a sour taste, are
usually corrosive, redden the blue colour of vegetable substance (e.g. litmus), and contain
hydrogen, part or all of which can be replaced when the acid is treated with a metal, metallic
oxide, hydroxide or carbonate.

Salts. In modern Chemistry the word salt is a descriptive term applied to a distinct family
of substances and not to any particular individual. In the kitchen, salt is colloquially applied to
one specific individual, sodium chloride. A salt is produced by replacing all or part of the
hydrogen of an acid by a metal or basic radical. For instance, zinc displaces the hydrogen, of
sulphuric acid:
Zn + H2SO4 = ZnSO 4 + H2
forming zinc sulphate.

Bases. A base is a substance which reacts with an acid to produce a salt and water. For
instance, zinc oxide reacts with sulphuric acid to produce zinc sulphate and water:
ZnO + H2SO4 = ZnSO4 + H2O
The bases include the oxides and the hydroxides of the metals, and certain groups of
elements equivalent to a metal.
The term base was originally intended to express the idea that the metal or metal oxide was
the more important constituent, the foundation or base of a salt. This idea was dropped when it
was recognized that the acidic constituent of a salt is just as important as the basic constituent.

Oxidation and reduction

The conversion of an element into its oxide by direct combination with oxygen is the
simplest case of oxidation. For example, when calcium is heated in air it is oxidized to calcium
oxide. Similarly, any process which will convert an element into its oxide is an oxidation. An
analogous process may involve the combination of a compound already containing some oxygen
with still more oxygen, as for example when barium oxide is heated in air to a suitable
temperature and thereby converted into barium dioxide:
2BaO + O2 = 2BaO2
This again is clearly an oxidation. Oxidation, in the simplest case, is thus a process which
adds oxygen to an element or compound.
The reverse of this process, that is, the removal of oxygen from a compound containing
it, is known as reduction. Thus, for example, when copper oxide is converted into copper by
passing hydrogen over the heated oxide, the copper oxide is said to be reduced to copper. This is
the original idea underlying the terms oxidation and reduction, and is the simplest use.
It soon became evident, however, that the process of removing hydrogen from a
compound containing that element involves something closely akin to oxidation as indicated
above, and similarity, the addition of hydrogen closely resembles reduction as previously
understood. The same reagents will often bring about both addition of oxygen and removal of
hydrogen, or vice versa, and the changes brought about in the state of combination of an element
are similar. Hence, the idea of oxidation and reduction was extended to cover these cases.
As chemistry developed, it was realized that some process which do not directly involve
hydrogen and oxygen at all are in principle so closely related to oxidation and reduction, as
understood when referred simply to changes in the oxygen and hydrogen content of a compound,
that the idea has been still further extended.
For example, ferrous oxide, FeO, is a base which gives rise to a series of salts called the
ferrous salts. Ferrous oxide can be oxidized, for example, by the oxygen of the air, to ferric
oxide, Fe2O3 . Ferric oxide in its turn is a base which with acids forms ferric salts. Ferrous and
ferric salts thus stand in the same relationship to each other as ferrous and ferric oxides. Now a
solution of a soluble ferrous salt, on exposure to air, will slowly turn to the ferric salt clearly
oxidation has occurred. For example, ferrous chloride is converted partly into ferric chloride and
partly into ferric hydroxide.
 But ferrous chloride can be converted very simply into ferric chloride by the action of
chlorine which must be reckoned to be an oxidation since it is agreed that the conversion of
ferrous chloride into ferric chloride is an oxidation. But no oxygen has taken part in the process.
Hence the term oxidation must be extended to cover this process.
Conversely, reduction must also be similarly extended. Similar reasoning to the above
indicates that the conversion of mercuric chloride, HgCl 2, is a process of reduction. This can be
brought about by means of stannous chloride, for example, without the intervention of hydrogen
at all:
2HgCl2 + SnCl2 = Hg2Cl2 + SnCl4
This last example illustrates one very important fact. Mercuric chloride is reduced to
mercurous chloride in this reaction, but the stannous chloride by means of which this result is
brought about is changed into stannic chloride; in other words it has been oxidized. In general,
oxidation and reduction are reciprocal processes, one substance is oxidized while the other is
reduced.

such as hydrochloric acid. The addition of the acid causes a very large increase in the rate
of hydrolysis. As an example of homogenous catalysis in the vapour phase, mention may be
made of the fact that carbon monoxide and oxygen will not combine unless a trace of water
vapour is present.
In heterogenous catalysis, the catalyst is separated from the reacting mixture by boundary
surfaces. Important examples are the manufacture of sulphur trioxide from sulphur dioxide and
oxygen in the presence of platinum; and the production of ammonia by the combination of
nitrogen and hydrogen in presence of ferric oxide and traces of molybdenum.

Vitamins

Vitamins are organic substances necessary for the maintenance of normal metabolic
function. The vitamins resemble the hormones in many respects and have been aptly termed
exogenous hormones. Only small amounts of the vitamins are required for normal health. In
the body they act as components of the important enzyme systems which catalyze the reactions
by which protein, fat and carbohydrate are metabolized. The vitamins are widely distributed in
nature and ample quantities are furnished by a varied diet. Some of the vitamins (e.g. vitamin K)
may be formed by bacteria in the gut, while vitamin D is synthesized by exposure of the skin to
sunlight. With these exceptions, the vitamins must be ingested in the food and restricted diets or
disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, interfering with absorption, and lead to vitamin deficiency.
When pronounced, such deficiencies give rise to easily recognizable clinical syndromes
(beriberi, pellagra, rickets, scurvy) which have been long recognized. Milder forms of
avitaminosis are much more common and also give rise to disability and ill-health. Vitamin
deficiencies in the young result in retardation of growth and development. The chief indications
for the use of vitamin preparations are as prophylactics when an inadequate intake may be
anticipated (e.g. vitamin D in infants) or when definite avitaminosis exists.
During the early years of their investigation, vitamins were divided into fat-soluble and
water-soluble constituents. As each new member was discovered it was designated by some
letter of the alphabet, the components of the fat-soluble group including vitamins A, D, E and K,
while the water-soluble group contained the heterogenous vitamin B group and vitamin C. As to
be expected, the fat-soluble vitamins are stored in the body and hence a deficiency of these
results only after relatively long deprivation from an adequate supply or when factors in the
gastro-intestinal tract (absence of bile, steatorrhea etc) prevent their absorption. The water-
soluble vitamins, on the other hand, cannot be stored in the body large amounts and hence
relatively short periods of deprivation lead to a deficiency.
Despite their great activity in minute amounts, the vitamins are relatively non-toxic when
administered in moderate amounts, any excess ingested being excreted in the urine unchanged or
destroyed in the body.

Tobacco and its alkaloids

Tobacco had been in use among the aboriginal tribes of America before they became
known to civilization. It was introduced into Europe soon after the discovery of America, and its
use as an article of luxury, beginning in England, soon spread to the continent. The most
widespread use of tobacco-smoking is also the most ancient one, having been that of the
aboriginal Indians. Snuff-taking, introduced by Francis II of France, remained fashionable for a
long time. It is still widely used in backward rural communities where it is placed under the lip
rather than sniffed into the nostril. Tobacco-chewing is a more modern development, but shows
signs of abatement. Curiously enough, the leaves of the pituri plant, which contain nicotine, are
formed into a mass and chewed by the natives of Australia. In smoking, snuffing or chewing,
nicotine is absorbed; tobacco smoke always contains nicotine, though the amount varies with
different kinds of tobacco and also with the way in which it is smoked; but about 22 per cent of
that contained in tobacco passes over in the smoke along with pyridine and some of its derivates.
About 90 per cent of the nicotine is absorbed from smoke if this is inhaled, a lesser amount (10
per cent) if not inhaled. In snuff the nicotine is generally small in amount, while in chewing
tobacco there is generally a varying amount of foreign matter, such as molasses.
About 10 per cent of the nicotine absorbed is excreted unchanged in the urine. The
reminder appears as dimethylcotinine, hydroxycotinine and related compounds. Cotinine appears
to be an important intermediate in the metabolic degradation of nicotine. Studies with C14
labelled nicotine indicate that all of it is excreted within twenty-four hours.
The enjoyment derived from the use of tobacco has never been adequately explained. The
tobacco habit cannot be compared with the use of such drugs as morphine, cocaine, or alcohol,
for it is not taken with the purpose of producing stimulation or depression of the central nervous
system, and it seems doubtful whether the nicotine ordinarily absorbed really has any action
whatsoever. The local effects on the mouth, nose, and throat probably play a larger part in the
effects of tobacco than is generally recognized. A curious fact which tends to show that tobacco-
smoking is not carried on solely for the sake of the nicotine absorbed, is that the pleasure derived
from a pipe or cigar is diminished for many persons if the smoke is not seen, as when it is
smoked in the dark; and few blind men enjoy smoking.
Most people may indulge in the moderate use of tobacco for many years with perfect
impunity, but its excessive use is followed in many individuals by a number of symptoms, some
of them trivial, others indicating grave changes in important organs. The use of tobacco may lead
to palpitation and irregularity of the heart (extra-systoles, paroxysmal auricular tachycardia). It
may also act as an allergen, particularly in those who work in constant contact with it.
overindulgence in tobacco may lead to fibrillary twitching. Statistical studies indicate that the
incidence of heart disease and of carcinoma of the lung is greater in cigarette smokers than in
non-smokers.
Anginal pains provoked by tobacco are relatively common in heavy smokers.
The abuse of tobacco may result in dimness of vision, especially for colours, and imperfect
accommodation, which may go to complete blindness in one or both eyes.
The widely prevalent view that smoking increases the volume and acidity of the gastric
secretions has not been confirmed experimentally. However, the injection of the 0.2 mg of
nicotine reflexly abolished the hunger contractions of the stomach for fifteen or sixty minutes.

DRUGS
Drug tolerance

The failure of the individual to react to the ordinary dose of a drug is known as tolerance.
Certain species of animals tolerate quantities of drugs which would be fatal to others of the same
size. In fact, so frequently is this the case that it is impossible to determine the fatal dose of any
drug on an animal from experiments performed upon others of a different species, even though it
be nearly related. One of the most remarkable examples of this form of tolerance is met with the
hedgehog, which resist large doses of many very active poisons. Another well-known example is
the tolerance of the rabbit to large quantities of atropine.
A form of tolerance which is a matter of everyday observations is that induced by the
prolonged use of a drug, which has been called acquired tolerance, or mithridatism, from the
tradition that Mithridates protected himself in this way from the danger of poisoning. The most
familiar example of this form of tolerance is that acquired for tobacco (nicotine); the first cigar
often induces violent poisoning, but if a habit be formed, considerable amounts of nicotine may
be absorbed without apparent harm, because the tissues become accustomed to the presence of
small quantities of nicotine, and thus fail to react to it. this tolerance is entirely different from the
immunity induced by toxins. An important form of tolerance is the resistance developed by
pathogenic organisms for certain drugs. Thus by subjecting susceptible organisms to inadequate
doses of a drug it is possible to render them drug fast, that is, resistant to the drug even when
used in what would originally have been an adequate dosage. This form of tolerance can be
acquired by organisms cultivated in vitro as well as in vivo.
Very often while some tissues acquire tolerance for a poison, others fail to do so, and either
react in the same way as before or may suffer from the prolonged use of excessive quantities: for
example, although after prolonged use morphine loses its action on the brain so that large doses
have to be given to relieve pain, tolerance is less developed in the bowel, so that constipation
continues to be induced by smaller amounts; similarly in a dog tolerant to morphine, the cardiac
inhibitory centre retains its sensitiveness to it. Some animals fail to develop tolerance for certain
drugs; for example the rabbit remains sensitive to morphine after prolonged treatment. It is to be
noted that tolerance is soon lost if the drug be discontinued for some time. This is of great
importance in cases of opium-eating, for a person who has taken opium for a long time acquires
a tolerance for the drug, so that sometimes enormous quantities are required in order to induce
the ordinary effects; but if the habit be discontinued for some time, the tolerance is lost, and a
dose which would formerly have had little effect may now induce dangerous poisoning. The
prolonged use of one drug may establish tolerance for others of the same class. Thus chronic
drunkards become less sensitive to large quantities of alcohol, and are also more resistant to the
action of other than ordinary persons, this being due to the fact that ether and alcohol act on the
same nerve cells in the same direction, and probably induce the same changes in the protoplasm.

The carbohydrate group

Glucose (Dextrose). The most important simple sugar in the living cell is glucose. It
accumulates in many fruits, cherries, strawberries, juniper fruits (up to 4 per cent), and grapes
(up to 20 to 30 per cent).
Glucose is produced on an industrial scale by hydrolyzing starch with dilute acid. After
hydrolysis, the acid is neutralized with sodium carbonate, and the solution is decolourized and
evaporated under vacuum to a syrup (liquid glucose). This syrup which is widely used, contains
not only glucose but also di-, tri-, and tetrasaccharides from incomplete hydrolysis of the starch.
Pure glucose is obtained by crystallization.
Glucose has a variety of uses in technology (crystallization inhibitors, in the fermentation
industries, in tooth pastes, in the tanning industry, in silvering of mirrors, and many other things).
Fructose (Levoluse). This sugar is obtained by hydrolysis of inulin, a polysaccharide of
fructose. Sources of inulin are Helianthus tuberosus and Taraxacum officinale.
While glucose overflows into the urine, fructose is metabolized by diabetic individuals.
The reason for this difference is not yet quite understood, but it is known that insulin counteracts
the inhibitory action of the anterior pituitary on hexokinase, an enzyme which is involved in the
phosphorylation of glucose, a step necessary for the further metabolism of glucose.
Phosphorylation of glucose is impaired in the diabetic, while the phosphorylation of fructose is
not influenced by insulin.
Fructose is used in parenteral feeding and has been recommended in diabetic emergencies
(acute ketoacidosis).
Honey. Honey consists of a concentrated solution or semi crystalline mixture of glucose
and fructose in equal amounts together with small quantities of vitamins and other compounds. It
is produced in the stomach of the bee by inversion of sucrose, which the bee collects from flower
nectar.
Cellulose. The substance that makes up the major parts of the cell wall in plants is a
polysaccharide known as cellulose. Its molecule is built up of more than a thousand glucose units
attached to each other in -linkage to form a straight chain.
Cellulose is insoluble in all ordinary solvents. It is prepared by extracting wood and other
materials with strong alkali or calcium sulphite which dissolves the lignin, a substance that
commonly accompanies cellulose. Cellulose may then be dissolved in Schweitzers reagent.
Upon acidification of the solution of the copper-cellulose complex, cellulose precipitates.
Cellulose is not readily hydrolyzed, but by use of elevated temperatures, high pressures,
and high acid concentration hydrolysis is possible. The free alcoholic groups of cellulose are
easily acetylated. This property is utilized in the manufacture of acetyl-cellulose, which is
employed extensively in the manufacture of textile fibres. The alcoholic groups can also be
esterified with nitric and other acids. Nitrated cellulose is used in explosives.
 Cellulose is a most important foodstuff for herbivorous animals. The animals do not
produce the enzyme, cellulase, necessary for the hydrolysis of cellulose; but microbes living in
the rumen and the intestines of herbivorous animals produce cellulose and thus make cellulose
utilizable as a food. Without the existence of micro organisms cellulose would accumulate and
life would soon be impossible on the earth because of the resulting shortage of carbon.
Cellulose in the food of man serves as a filter and this contributes mechanically to the
motility of the intestines. Cellulose, being chemically inert and insoluble, is used in surgery in
the form of cotton fibres (87 to 93 per cent cellulose). Many plant fibres consisting mostly of
cellulose are used in the manufacture of cloth and plastics.

The fatty acid group

Olive oil. The evergreen olive tree, Olea europaea var. sativa (Oleaceae), is cultivated
extensively in Spain, Italy, southern France, southern California, and other subtropical areas. It
exists in many cultivated varieties and was originally developed from the variety oleaster, which
grows wild in Mediterranean countries.
For preparation of first-class oil, the fruits are hand-picked and sorted according to
maturity; pulp and stones are separated and the pulp is pressed. The first cold-pressed oil is the
finest; regular edible oil is obtained by heating; and technical oil by putrefaction and extraction
with solvent.
The quality of olive oil depends not only on manufacturing methods but also on the variety
of the plant, age of the trees, climate, maturity of fruits, and other factors.
Theobroma oil. Cocoa or cacao butter is obtained from cocoa beans. After fermentation,
the beans are heated in rotating drums with superheated steam to 130 to 150 degrees, and then
ground and expressed in hydraulic presses at 60 to 70 degrees. Most of the seed coat is separated
prior to expression to avoid colouring the oil brown. Theobroma oil is solid and yellow. The
rancid oil is white. It is cast in plates or blocks up to 12 kg in weight and is generally packed in
tin foil.
The press cakes furnish cocoa or cacao and are used in the preparation of chocolate and
theobromine. Cocoa butter is used extensively for the preparation of suppositories.
Hydroxy-fatty acids. Castor oil. Ricinus oil prepared from the seeds of Ricinus communis
(Euphorbiaceae), a plant that came originally from tropical Africa but was cultivated early in
India and the Orient and is cultivated today in many varieties. The greatest producers of castor
beans today are Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, and lately, the United States. For production of oil, the
seeds are sorted in machines according to size, peeled in drums set at certain distances, and
separated from their shells by blasts of activated charcoal. The odour is eliminated by
introduction of steam, which also coagulates and destroys ricin, a very toxic protein present in
the seeds. Eighty per cent of the oil is made up of glycerides of ricinoleic acid, which is the
therapeutically active constituent of the oil. Huge quantities are utilized technically. The press
cakes are rich in proteins but can be used as fodder only after the ricin has been destroyed by
boiling.
Uses. The oil of the castor bean is hydrolysed, like other fats, in the intestines by means of
pancreatic lipase. The soap of ricinoleic acid, a hydroxy-fatty acid, promotes peristalsis, and the
oil is a common laxative. The action is exerted only in the small intestine, for the oil is largely
absorbed before reaching the colon.
 The alkaloid group

Isoquinoline type. Opium. Opium is obtained by incision of the capsules of the opium
poppy, Papaver somniferum (Papaveraceae), which, today, is cultivated legally only in India,
Iran, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. According to an international agreement of 1950 to restrict the
production of opium to medicinal and scientific needs only, all other countries have agreed not to
produce opium.
Opium poppy is cultivated in two varieties: nigrum, which has black seeds, and album,
which has white seeds. The black variety is the more common. Opium poppy has been known
and cultivated as far back as early antiquity. Although opium has been used to alleviate pain for
centuries, opium addiction became widespread only in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
mostly in China, where opium smoking developed into a destructive vice.
Cultivation and preparation. The opium poppy is an annual plant, cultivated in a variety
of cultural strains. The strains commonly used in Asia Minor yield opium with the highest
content of morphine. In the production of opium, poppy seeds are the main product, opium a by-
product.
The alkaloids are present only in the latex, which is present in all parts of the plant except
the seeds. The content of morphine in the capsules is highest at the time when the capsules start
to change colour from green to yellow. A decrease of morphine content during ripening of the
capsules and storage of aqueous solutions is due chiefly to the presence of a thermo labile,
morphine-oxidizing enzyme. Opium collection requires great skill in order not to damage the
fruit, which goes on ripening. When the capsules have reached this stage of maturity, the farmers
make horizontal incisions in the capsules. The latex contained in an anastomosing lactiferous
system oozes out and gradually dries in the air. The smeary mass is collected by scraping it off
during the following day. One capsule furnishes 20 to 30 mg of opium and twenty days labour is
required to produce 1 kg. The mass is then kneaded and formed into cakes. Opium production is
under governmental supervision and control. In 1905, China alone produced 20 to 30 million kg
of opium; today, the total production of the whole world is estimated at about 2 million kg. One-
half million kg is needed for medicinal purposes, so that there is still opium produced for non-
medicinal use.
Opium contains over 25 different alkaloids. The most important one is morphine. Official
opium contains 10 per cent morphine, fresh opium 20 per cent. The total alkaloid content
amounts to about 25 per cent.
Determination of morphine in opium. Commonly used is the lima method. To an
aqueous extract of opium, Ca(OH)2 is added. Morphine, being a phenol, goes into solution as the
phenolate, while the other alkaloids are precipitated as free bases and filtered off. Addition of
NH4Cl to the filtrate neutralizes the Ca(OH)2 and makes the solution ammoniacal. Since NH4OH
is not basic enough to form phenolates, the free morphine base forms and, being nearly insoluble
in water, crystallizes out. The crystals are isolated, dissolved in alcohol, and titrated with acid.
Morphine. Morphine is the main carrier of the opium action and had a unique position in
medicine before the days of Demerol or Dolantin (1940). Morphine acts centrally, then in
gradual succession, on nerve centres of the spinal cord. Sensory areas are most strongly affected
so that pain is alleviated. Muscle contraction is not influenced. Morphine, like opium, is
primarily a drug against all sorts of physical pain. It also causes euphoria, even in therapeutic
doses (narcotic). In some individuals, it stimulates the vomiting centre. It is also effective in
suppressing peristalsis.
 The protein group

Proteinoids. Catgut (Absorbable) suture. Catgut is prepared from sheep intestines. The
mucosa and the outer muscular layers are separated from the sub mucosa by scraping. Several
strands of sub mucosa are twined together and dried in stretched form (5 to 6 m long). Catgut
(collagen) is made up of innumerable fine filaments and is used for internal sutures, because it is
gradually digested in the tissues. The digestion of catgut must not occur too fast since the stitches
might open before healing is complete. In order to prolong digestion time, the gut is often
tanned, so that it retains its tensile strength in the tissue for five to twenty-five days according to
the method used. Digestibility is determined by exposure to proteinases (pepsin, trypsin, papain).
If heated in water, catgut dissolves and, therefore, must be heat-sterilized in paraffin. Catgut has
a high tensile strength (about 5,000 Kgf per cm2 ) and is not antigenic.
Non-absorbable sutures are made of silk, rayon, and vegetable fibres.
Gelatine. Gelatine is prepared by hot extraction of the collagenous by-product from the
meat industries (connective tissues, skin, and bones). Gelatine for pharmaceutical use is prepared
from carefully selected raw materials which are first decalcified with hydrochloric acid and then
treated with lime to dissolve normal proteins. The washed residue is cooked. The filtrate sets
upon cooling; the jelly is cut into sheet slices and dried in ovens to yield gelatine. The properties
of gelatine vary considerably with the method employed for its preparation. Thus, the isoelectric
point of a sample depends largely upon the method used in the manufacturing. Alkali-cured raw
materials furnish a gelatine of isoelectric point approximately 5, while acid treatment gives a
gelatine with isoelectric point above 7.
Gelatine is used extensively in pharmacy for the preparation of capsules, and strengths of
gelatine vary with the types. Knowledge of these is important for the manufacturing of capsules:
elastic are made of gelatine of medium strength, hard capsules of gelatine of high strength. The
isoelectric point is of great significance for the use of gelatine in emulsions; for instance, oil-in-
water emulsions are more stable when prepared with gelatine having an isoelectric point
somewhere between 3 and 4. It is not antigenic and has been used as a plasma extender and also
in the manufacturing of suppositories, pastilles, and pastes.
Gelatine foam sponge is produced by bubbling inert gas into a concentrated solution of
gelatine and then suddenly evacuating to cause swelling. It serves the same purpose as fibrin
foam sponge since it is gradually absorbed in the body and is not antigenic.

The isoprenoid group

Essential oils. Many plants, by virtue of the volatile compounds produced by them, affect
the olfactory sense. The compounds responsible for the flagrance are called aromatic substances,
and mixtures of several of these are generally called essential oils. They are all volatile, usually
liquids, normally of agreeable odour, and are miscible with lipids and lipoid solvents. They are
distributed widely in the plant kingdom, some plant families being rich in species producing
essential oils, e.g. Pinaceae, Labiatae, Myrtaceae, and Umbelliferae.
With a few exceptions, the aromatic substances are present in free form in the plant;
occasionally, however, an odoriferous substance (e.g. methyl salicylate) is set free only by
hydrolysis of odourless glycosides. However, this is an exception rather than the rule.
 Peppermint oil. Commercial production occurs in the United States and, to a much lesser
extent, in Russia, other European countries, and South America.
There are three main varieties of peppermint used for oil production.
1. Black peppermint, with purple stem, furnishes an oil of slightly less fine aroma but is
more hardy and gives a higher yield of volatile oil than American mint.
2. American mint has green stems and lighter leaves and is not used much at present in
oil production.
3. White mint is grown in small quantities in England.
Peppermint production is highly mechanized. The plant spreads vigorously in the field by
means of laterally growing stolons, which survive plowing under. It is propagated by stolons dug
with potato diggers and replanted, mostly by machines, in rows. The methods of cultivation have
no effect on the quality of the oil except that they may affect the maturation of the culture and
the yield of plant material.
The most important components of peppermint oil are menthol and menthol esters. The
menthol content of the oil increases with the age of the plant, while the content of menthone, an
oxidation product of menthol, decreases. This has given rise to the belief that menthol is formed
in the plants by reduction of menthone. The latter should be present in the oil in as low
concentration as possible, since it has a harsh odour. Menthol content is highest at the time of
blooming, when mint should be cut; thereafter the oil content decreases rapidly.
It is important for the fineness of the oil that the plantation be kept clear of weeds, since
many weeds, when distilled along with peppermint, give off volatile substances of offensive
odour.
The peppermint hay is usually dried for one to two days prior to hauling to the distilleries
in order to reduce weight and consumption of steam during distillation. Ten to twenty per cent of
the oil or more may be lost during the drying and hauling, partly by evaporation, and partly by
resinification of some of the constituents of the oil. It is to be expected, therefore, that the oils
from fresh and dried peppermint differ somewhat in composition. Indeed, oil distilled from fresh
mint undergoes greater and faster changes upon storage because of gradual resinification of
certain constituents (increase in specific gravity, solubility in alcohol). Oil from dried mint has
better keeping qualities since a great part of the resiniferous material has already been
eliminated.

Epinephrine

Mechanism of action. Epinephrine induces its effect by combining with receptors in the
end-organs. After ergotoxine, an alkaloid which antagonizes the action of epinephrine in some
organs, the end-organ remains active though the receptor on which epinephrine acts is paralyzed.
Epinephrine also does not act on the anatomical nerve ends, for after these have degenerated and
disappeared, the usual effects of epinephrine are elicited by the injection. It is obvious that the
action is exercised on some substance intermediate between the nerve and the end-organ.
Epinephrine and other catecholamine promote the accumulation of cyclic 3,5-adenosine
phosphate and active phosphorylase and it has been suggested that they induce their effects
through this reaction. Their action is terminated by amine oxidase and O-methyl transferase.
Epinephrine injected intravenously acts in very small quantities, 0.001 mg often sufficing to
raise the blood-pressure in the dog. The effect is of very short duration, but it may be repeated
indefinitely by fresh injections. Epinephrine applied locally induces such vasoconstriction that it
is only slowly absorbed. Injected hypodermically it causes local ischemia so that comparatively
large doses (0.5 to 1 mg) compared with those necessary by intravenous injection are required to
give a distinct rise of blood-pressure and dilatation of the bronchi; injected intramuscularly it
induces stronger general effects. Epinephrine is ineffective when administered orally unless used
in large doses (4 mg), being converted in the gastro-intestinal tract to toxic oxidation products.
The massage of the skin over the area in which a hypodermic injection has been made enhances
the effect of the drug, the action of which may be elicited in this way even an hour after its
injection.
Toxicology. Animals are poisoned by large amounts injected hypodermically, with
prostration, collapse and paralysis of the central nervous system. Large doses induce pulmonary
edema as a result of an increase in pulmonary venous pressure and congestion of the capillaries.
Some protection against this lethal action is afforded by morphines and chloral hydrate with a
more complete protection by papaverine. The minimal lethal dose of epinephrine administered
subcutaneously to man is about 10 mg per kilo of body weight, but alarming symptoms may
follow the intravenous injection of as little as 0.3 mg.

Steroids

The steroids form a group of substances which are conveniently considered along with the
lipids, although they differ from them greatly in chemical structure. Like lipids they are soluble
in the fat solvents and, in general, insoluble in water. Since they are not hydrolysed by treatment
with sodium hydroxide they form part of what is termed the unsaponifiable fraction of the lipid
portion of tissues. The steroids include such substances as cholesterol and other sterols, the bile
acids, the male and female sex hormones of the adrenal cortex, and a number of miscellaneous
substances, including cardiotonic glycosides of the digitalis group and some alkaloids. The
steroids are of great physiological importance, and although they show very varied biological
activity, they all have one feature in common in that they contain the nucleus known as the
perhydrocyclopenteno-phenanthrene ring system.
The sterols are steroid alcohols. The best known is cholesterol which is widely distributed
in the tissues and may be conveniently isolated from gall-stones or brain tissue. It is particularly
abundant in brain and nervous tissue, in the adrenal glands and in the skin, and found also in egg-
yolk. The pure substance is a white solid forming crystals of characteristic shape, insoluble in
water but soluble in the fat solvents. It gives characteristic colour tests.
It is to be noted that cholesterol contains the cyclopenteno-phenanthrene ring system, with
all the rings in the reduced state. A double bond is present between carbon atoms 5 and 6. Like
all sterols, cholesterol has angular methyl groups attached to carbon atoms 10 and 13, and a
hydroxyl group at position 3. All sterols, including cholesterol, have an aliphatic side chain at
position 17, but its complexity varies from one sterol to another.
By virtue of its hydroxyl group, cholesterol is an alcohol and can therefore form esters. In
the tissues it exists partly in the free state and partly in the form of esters which belong to the
group of waxes.
Many other sterols are known but only a few are of importance in the body. 7 -
Dehydrocholesterol occurs in skin and is converted by ultraviolet light to one form of vitamin D.
The plant sterol, ergosterol, which is found in yeasts, likewise acts as the precursor of another
form of vitamin D. Coprosterol is found in the faeces. Among the many plant sterols may be
mentioned sitosterol and stigmasterol.
The Bile Acids. The bile contains a number of steroid acids which are derivatives of the
parent substance cholanic acid.
The Sex Hormones. The male sex hormones or androgens and their metabolic products
are all derivatives of the parent hydrocarbon androstane, and include testosterone and
androsterone. These androgens have no side chain in position 17 but have oxo or hydroxyl
groupings in position 3 and 17. Those with oxo groups in position 17 are known as 17-
oxosteroids (formerly 17-ketosteroids).
The female sex hormones are the oestrogens, which are the hormones characteristic of the
ovary, and progesterone derived from the corpus luteum. The natural oestrogens are derivatives
of the parent hydrocarbon oestrane, and include oestradiol and oestrone.
Progesterone is a derivative of the parent hydrocarbon pregnane. A related compound is
pregnanediol.
The hormones of the adrenal cortex include such compounds as corticosterone and
aldosterone.
It has been established that, in the animal organisms, cholesterol functions as a precursor of
the bile acids, the adrenal cortical hormones and progesterone, the androgens and the oestrogens.

Tablets

Tablets may be defined as solid pharmaceutical dosage forms prepared by compressing or

moulding. They have been in widespread use since the latter part of the 19th century. Advantages
of tablet preparation to the manufacturer include: simplicity and economy in fabrication,
stability, and convenience in dispensing and shipping. The advantages to the consumer include:
accuracy and compactness of dosage, portability and blandness of taste.
Definitions. Although tablets are most frequently discoid in form, they may also be round,
oval, oblong, cylindrical or triangular. They are divided into two general classes, depending upon
whether they are made by compression or by moulding. The various tablet types and
abbreviation commonly employed in referring to them are listed below.
Compressed Tablets (C.T.). These tablets are formed by compression and contain no
special coating. They are made from powdery, crystalline, or granular materials, alone or in
combination with binders (adhesive substances), disintegrators (substances facilitating the break
up of the tablets after administration), lubricants (materials preventing sticking of the tablets to
the punches and dies), and fillers (inner diluents). They are formed into many shapes and sizes.
Sugar-Coated Tablets (S.C.T.). These are compressed tablets containing a sugar coating.
Such coatings are beneficial in covering up medicinals possessing objectionable tastes or odours,
and in protecting sensitive medicinals subjects to deterioration.
Enteric-Coated Tablets (E.C.T.). These are compressed tablets coated with substances
that resist solution in gastric fluid but disintegrate and release their medication in the intestine.
Chocolate-Coloured Tablets (C.C.T.). The abbreviation C.C.T. indicates a chocolate-
coloured tablet. Originally chocolate was used as a colouring material and the same designation
referred to chocolate-coated tablets. Iron oxides, standardizes as to colour are now available
and largely replace chocolate for this purpose.
 Moulded Tablets or Tablet Triturates (T.T.). T.T. originally referred to tablet triturates,
made from moist materials on a triturate mould which gave them the shape of cut selections of a
cylinder. Such tablets must be completely and rapidly soluble. Tablet triturates are now usually
made by compression on a tablet machine.
Hypodermic Tablets (H.T.). Hypodermic tablets are those made in a tablet triturate mould
and are intended for use in making hypodermic preparations for injection. Such tablets must be
made with absolute cleanliness for they are usually used to prepare parenteral solutions
extemporaneously (ex-tempore). Therefore, they must be completely and rapidly soluble in the
vehicle.

Emulsification

An emulsion is a heterogeneous system consisting of droplets of one liquid dispersed

throughout the body of a second liquid. That liquid broken up or existing as globules is termed
the internal, dispersed, or discontinuous phase, whereas the liquid enclosing the droplets is
termed the external, the continuous phase, or the dispersion medium. In some instances one
medium or the other may be a semisolid as is the case with emulsion type ointment bases and
cosmetic creams.
From the standpoint of the relative amounts of the two phases, there are, generally
speaking, two very distinct types of emulsions:
a) The very dilute emulsions of oil in water usually referred to as the oil hydrosols.
b) The more concentrated emulsions which are more complex and which may have either
oil or water as the external phase.
The oil hydrosols consist of a system in which water is the dispersion medium, throughout
which are dispersed very small amounts of oil, never exceeding 2 per cent. The particles of oil
which are very small are not protected by the presence of any added stabilizing agent and their
behaviour is quite analogous to that of hydrophobic sols.
The second class of emulsions may be subdivided into:
1) those consisting of droplets of oil dispersed throughout an aqueous dispersion medium,
usually referred to as oil-in-water or O/W emulsions, and
2) those in which droplets of water are dispersed throughout an oleaginous dispersion
medium, termed water-in-oil, or W/O emulsions. Some emulsions are semi-solids as, for
example, Hydrophilic Ointment U.S.P.
When pure oil and water are shaken together, the initial dispersion of oil is quite unstable,
the oil rapidly coalescing until a complete separation into a layer of oil and water results. This
might be expected, inasmuch as the increase in surface area produced by the dispersion of the oil
greatly increases the free surface energy of the system and at such a high energy level the system
is unstable. By the process of coalescence this free surface energy again attains its minimum
value. Free surface energy is dependent upon both surface area (capacity factor) and interfacial
tension (intensity factor). Obviously the former cannot do anything other than increase when the
surface area is increased during dispersion. Therefore, if a stable emulsion is to be produced,
some third substance must be present termed the emulsifying or stabilizing agent which by its
presence at the interface prevents the coalescence of the oil globules. The mechanism whereby
this coalescence is prevented is explained in several ways by numerous theories which have been
advanced in the extensive emulsion literature.
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