Abstract The solubility of organic compounds has great application values in new drug development and detective or analytical areas such as medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, or industry. However, related descriptions in the undergraduate textbooks of chemistry are pretty vague and superficial, which leads to deficiency of related knowledge for students. Base on this situation, this manuscript clarifies the relationship of different definitions related to solubility combining their use in areas such as new drug development, illustrates the mechanism for the process of solubilization, and discusses strategies to improve water solubility by chemical modification. The equations for the calculation of water solubility by partition coefficient and melting point are put forward, which indicate the possibility of concurrently increase of both water solubility and lipid solubility. Also, the addition or removal of hydrogen bonding can be used in the improvement of water solubility. Furthermore, disruption of molecular planarity is another new strategy to increase water solubility. It is hoped to promote the connection between theory teaching and practical applications, and expand the understanding of related knowledge for teachers and students.
YAN Bo-Yu, HE Chun-Yang, WANG An-Jun, ZHANG Xin, YAO Qiu-Li. Questions of Water Solubility of Organic Compound in New Drug Development[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Education, 2023, 44(12): 60-65.
