Isonicotinic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Pertaining to or derived from a specific pyridine carboxylic acid isomer characterized by a nitrogen atom at the second position of the ring structure
2. Relating to or involving the chemical structure of a particular isomer of nicotinic acid where the carboxyl group attaches at the second carbon adjacent to a nitrogen atom
3. Connected with a compound structurally similar to nicotinic acid but distinguished by the position of the carboxyl group on the pyridine ring next to the nitrogen atom

Etymology: Jean Nicot, a sixteenth-century French diplomat, promoted tobacco at the French court, and the plant genus Nicotiana was named in his honour. Nicotine, the alkaloid found in tobacco, takes its name from that plant. Nicotinic acid, named for its chemical relationship to nicotine, can be made by oxidising nicotine. Chemists added the prefix "iso-", from the Greek "isos" meaning "equal," to mark isomers: compounds with the same atoms arranged differently. The isonicotinic series differs from nicotinic acid only in where the carboxyl group sits on the pyridine ring, at the fourth position rather than the third, relative to the nitrogen atom.

Synonyms: isonicotinic acid