About this dataset
Organic compounds are carbon-based compounds typically organized by their carbon skeleton and functional groups. Those functional groups—such as alcohol, carbonyl, carboxylic acid, amine, and ester groups—are often more useful than formula alone for predicting reactivity and physical behavior.
No practical page can list every organic compound: the chemical space is far too large. This dataset is a curated reference set of recognizable examples across major classes, with names, formulas, structures, and stable identifiers for teaching and computational work.
The main families of organic compounds
Hydrocarbons contain only carbon and hydrogen and include alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, and aromatic compounds. Adding oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, or halogens produces families such as alcohols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones, acids, esters, amines, amides, and heterocycles.
A molecule can belong to more than one useful class. Salicylic acid, for example, contains both a phenol and a carboxylic acid group. The category in this table is therefore a practical primary label rather than an exhaustive description of every structural feature.
Reading formulas and structures
Molecular formulas report how many atoms of each element are present but do not uniquely describe connectivity. Structural isomers can share a formula while having different bonds and properties. The SMILES column preserves that connectivity in a compact text form, and the PubChem CID links each row to a specific compound record.
How this dataset was assembled
This list starts with well-known carbon-containing compounds across major functional classes. PubChem provides canonical identifiers and SMILES; ChEBI and ChEMBL are recommended for expanded class and bioactivity annotations.
Each row retains source identifiers where available. Molecular weight is calculated from the recorded formula, and the original names, structures, classifications, and database links remain visible so individual entries can be checked before reuse.
People also ask
What are common examples of organic compounds?
Methane, ethanol, acetone, acetic acid, benzene, glucose, caffeine, and urea are familiar examples. They span hydrocarbons, alcohols, ketones, acids, aromatics, carbohydrates, alkaloid-like compounds, and amides.
What are the four major classes of biological organic molecules?
Carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids are the four broad classes usually taught in biology. Many of their building blocks and metabolites appear in the biological molecules dataset.
Does every compound containing carbon count as organic?
No. Carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbonates, bicarbonates, and many simple cyanides are conventionally treated as inorganic despite containing carbon.
Why can two organic compounds have the same formula?
A molecular formula gives composition but not atom-to-atom connectivity. Different valid arrangements produce structural isomers, and different three-dimensional arrangements can produce stereoisomers.
Sources and further reading
- PubChem — Canonical compound identifiers, names, formulas, structures, SMILES, and downloadable compound records.
- ChEBI — Chemical ontology classes, biological roles, synonyms, formulas, SMILES, InChI, and ChEBI identifiers.
- ChEMBL — Manually curated bioactive and drug-like molecule data, including drug status and ChEMBL identifiers.
- NIST Chemistry WebBook — Reference physical chemistry data and diatomic constants for selected species.
- RDKit — Derived descriptors such as molecular weight, LogP, TPSA, hydrogen-bond counts, and canonicalized structures.